Never Forget

Ten years ago I went into Washington DC to the Vietnam Memorial. It was a horribly hot and humid day, so much like the weather in South East Asia.

This woman seemed to represent all of us. Sometimes you just can't cope with your emotion. Sometimes you need to let a photo or a memorial help you release the pain that's inside.

Later I walked back downtown and sat on the curb watching the Rolling Thunder. And yes, I cried.

Will we ever stop...

Memorial Day 2015

We spent a lot of time in DC yesterday, looking for family graves for my first husband. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous so it didn't matter too much that we didn't find any. Mt. Olivet has a lot of graves and without the exact locations, they were needles in a haystack.

Today, my dh is thinking that they might be in St. Mary's Cemetery which was an offshoot of Mt. Olivet or vice versa.  St. Mary's is administered by Mt. Olivet so... In any case a bit more research and a day that cemetery staff are present makes this a future visit.

But here is my father a WWII veteran, a veteran whose records either went up in smoke in the fire or drowned in the flood at the Records Center in St. Louis. That center is doomed.

Many thanks to all our veterans wherever they may be. 

Memorial Day Memory

My late father was a WWII veteran. He survived but died of ALS at age 53.  I'm always amazed when I hear of his peers  who are still alive in their late 80s or 90s. To my father and all his buddies, especially those who never came home -

Thank you.

my father is the tallest man, center back row

Memorial Day Memory

My father's Army unit in WWII. Not sure whether they had arrived in Europe or were still in the US. My father is top row center, the tallest man in the unit. Ahead of them was the Battle of the Bulge and a freezing cold winter. My father came home but was not the man who went to war at 23.

Which veteran is???

And still they die

Words and Pictures

Pip's theme this week is...a long drive. Some drives are short but seem incredibly long and others are long but the company makes them breeze by. I had always wanted to go to the Rolling Thunder parade on Memorial Day. DH and I had seen a bit of it in our earliest days together, but it was only by accident as we had been on the Mall seeing some exhibit. I wanted more.

I wanted a whole day with nothing else. I watched the parade for a couple of hours by myself and then walked to the Wall. It was typical late May weather, hot and humid, and I really needed more water than I brought. I've often wondered about the people I saw that day, so many of them in silence, remembering, wondering, still grieving - for him, for her, for us.

It's been a long long drive from that war to this one and then again sadly, it seems like such a short time.



If youwant to see and/or hear about long drives? Here they are.