When I was a little girl I helped my Grandma Onie (Grandma Nott) decorate the graves at the cemetery. We would pick “flags”, now known as Iris, and put them in canning jars and take them to the cemetery for each grave. There weren’t many then. Just my great-grandparents and some great-uncles…….but we decorated graves.
As the years went by it eventually became known as Memorial Day and when Grandma could no longer do the graves I took over for her. I enjoyed seeing where people were buried that I had known. There became more and more of them………and I kept decorating graves.
Memorial Day was a holiday for vacations too. We nearly always went camping for the weekend. That was the holiday, in 1958, when Papa had his terrible accident that they thought he would never survive. But he did and we had many more holidays for making memories……and I kept decorating graves.
Then came the day when we lost Papa and we had one more grave to decorate……for some reason I was unable to continue decorating the rest so my past endeavors had to be sufficient…….I stopped decorating graves.
I continued to help Liss decorate Papa’s until this year when I didn’t return for the holiday. I missed hearing his name called off with the other veterans who have passed….I missed visiting with old friends who had also gathered to pay tribute…….I missed the walk to Papa’s grave to sit on his stone for a few minutes…….I missed seeing how pretty the urn looked for the last time…….the beautiful Korean Lilac will be the decorations in years to come, as we had intended……..I missed the picnic afterwards…..I no longer decorated graves……
But I thought about Matt, Emma & Ethan sitting on Papa’s stone in my place and I smiled……a new tradition has begun…….and it’s a wonderful one……Papa and I are both happy about it. All are welcome to sit on the stone and visit with him (us)……..and we continue to decorate his grave…..
Old traditions end and new ones begin, and that’s the way it should be……..nothing stays the same.
My love to all of you on this Memorial Day 2007, GG Jan
May 29, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I’m sure you pictured it just as it happened, but I wanted to tell you about our day…
It rained Saturday and Sunday, but was BEAUTIFUL on Monday. We parked in our regular spot, and I gave wagon rides to Ethan, Emma, and Mason while we waited for the parade to start.
As we have done for the last several years, we followed the parade to the cemetery, listened to the ceremony, visited with Cinny (sp?), and waited intently to hear Papa’s name read. This was the first time Emma sat through the whole ceremony, and I prepared her for the military tribute so the guns didn’t startle her. She stood with the rest of us, her hand over her heart, while the National Anthem was sung, and we walked together to Papa’s grave.
The Korean lilac is beautiful and will make a great decoration from now on. The flowers Mom planted in the urn also look great, as always.
Several of us sat on the stone at different times. A particularly special moment was when Emma sat on the stone with Ethan on one side and Mason on the other, her arms around them both.
We missed you this weekend, and thought about you very often.
I love you.