Memorial Day Celebration

Celebrate - to commemorate with ceremony, solemnize, extol (praise, applaud)

Since childhood I have been taught to honor family and friends who have gone on before us. As small children we joined in the march with the town Memorial parade, stopped for prayer to honor each graveyard in town and then toss fresh flowers into the river to honor those buried at sea. My mother's parents both died before I was born so Memorial Weekend became our time to give to them. . It was important to Mom to take living things to the resting place of her mother. We would prepare hardy plants to go to the grave, living in Maine we do not know year to year if there will still be a chill in the air and snow in the woods near our homes.

Mom taught us to walk with respect in the cemetery. If a grave was messy or had old, broken or faded pieces we followed her lead to weed, clean and fix what we could. It was all about showing respect for the dead, the living who are left behind and our family. Mom made sure to point out not only graves of family and friends but others we should know about when the day might come that we would be the only ones who would remember. When I was a teenager I began working at a little shop that specialized in permanent Memorial arrangements. At age 19 I started my own florist business. It was important to me to serve customers at Memorial time. Families would go camping, have barbecues, open summer camps but my tradition was spending hours helping others honor their loved ones. I arranged fresh or silk flowers, planted urns and buckets of plants. I would make several trips to local cemeteries and a neighboring town monument to place pieces to honor military members who had sacrificed all for this country.

This Memorial my husband and I will travel over an hour to his parents and grandparents grave. We will set in a silk floral piece that I will make. We will remember these dear ones that we miss. He will reminisce of a childhood when he visited his grandparents farm in that village. We will also mention the Memorial Days we took our boys to visit the grave of the grandfathers who died before they were born. They enjoyed doing my business deliveries for years and became interested in making sure graves were cared for, lost ones respected and remembered. We will visit my father's grave a few miles from where we live. This year in memory of a World War II veteran and town selectman who passed away this winter my teen son wants to help put the flags on our veterans graves. Our veterans are all getting older now and it is hard for them to put out hundreds of flags. We will do our best to make sure we follow in there footsteps and see to it that it is done. It's the least we can do.
Memorial weekend feels like the end of winter here in Maine and gives hope that summer is truly on the way. It is a few days to honor those that we miss terribly. It can be a time to enjoy one another's company, have a few good meals but mostly for us, we respectfully remember.