Memorial Day Memories

Memorial Day in the USA usually marks the unofficial beginning of summertime.

However, it means far more than hamburgers and hotdogs sizzling on a grill, potato salad and cold drinks.

The holiday's meaning is quite sad. 

It is a day to remember the brave men and women in the Armed Services who died while serving their country.

Having been a mother for more than half my life and now a grandmother, I can only imagine the agony a parent feels over losing a child who was doing military service.

One thinks of all the years of sacrifices, putting children first, buying clothes, making hundreds of meals, and the joys, ups, and downs of what it takes to raise children.

Ballet or karate lessons, planning celebrations with little money,  new school clothes, attending wonderful concerts and plays in elementary, middle, and high schools, and on and on----- all of these are part of raising kids.

When an adult child joins the military, parents are proud but probably a little justifiably scared.  

We send them off to whatever military branch they have chosen.

Then, in a brief moment of fighting anywhere around the world, the adult cherished "child" is gone........wiped off the face of the earth forever.  

They have defended freedom with their very lives.

There is no way I can wish anyone a Happy Memorial Day. 

It's not happy. 

Tears continue to fall from parents' eyes, grown "children" are still dying, and there is no end, in the near future, in sight.

Deep and never ending thanks go to all the soldiers who have died while serving and who will die in the future.  

May their immense and heartbreaking sacrifices be paid back 100 fold on the other side of life.             

Today, we think of them. We honor them.  We hold them in our memories forever.