Memorial Day

I have seen a lot of posts today thanking people for their service to our country.

It is always a good thing to do.

Katie, Ayla and Erin walking to the Riverton cemetery

 But that's not what Memorial Day is about.  

Veteran's Day is about thanking our veterans.

Memorial Day is about the fallen.

fineartamerica.com  (photo credit)

You can't really thank them.

So you honor them- by flying their flags.

Or decorating their graves.

We decorate the graves of our family members because we are lucky enough to not have anyone in our families who have lost their life in battle.

In 2001, Jeff and I visited the In Flanders Field

Museum in Ypres, Belgium. (You pronounce it Eepray)

It is in a place where war raged from 1914-1918, and thousands of lives were lost.  Many, many British and American soldiers died in the trenches here.  

Some of the trenches are still there.  The museum does a very good job of teaching you what war was like in Ypres... and it was terrible.

This is where John McRae wrote the famous poem "In Flanders Field."

This is something I will never forget- the lists of the British soldiers whose bodies were never recovered.

The names go on and on.

What a sacrifice.  

The people of Ypres have not forgotten what our soldiers did for them.

I am so glad that my daughters and their cousin Ayla can spend their day having fun.  I hope that someday they can appreciate where that freedom came from.

This is a poem inspired by John McRae's- and the author is the person who came up with the idea of making paper poppies to sell as a fundraiser for veterans.

We Shall Keep the Faith

by Moina Michael, November 1918

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields