Found in a Parking Lot

A poppy made by Disabled Veterans, was lying in a parking lot last Wednesday.

I picked it up and put it in the car. It felt out of season for the Poppy Sales and I don’t know how long it’s been lying there.

But I couldn’t leave it, abandoned.

Memorial Day Compendium

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Watching her father as Taps played- 2016 Memorial Day Etna, PA

A Day of Remembrance- Originally blogged May 31, 2010   Reblogged in 2016

Screen Shot 2017-05-28 at 9.46.08 PMMuskingum County   World War II/Korean War Memorial     Zanesville, Ohio

 

Family members plant flowers, trim grass, pull a few weeds, decorate graves of loved ones with wreaths.

One time Mary and I scrubbed lichen off the granite with our toothbrushes.  I saw a watering can hang from a spigot, a metal pipe in the ground.

Boy Scouts place American flags by white marble veterans’ graves.

I remember when Bill played taps and as the clear notes sounded, the wind kicked up, blew swirls of dust and leaves, the sky got dark. And we all felt  a shivering chill.

Each helmet bears a soldier’s name.

Memorial Day 2013 Guest Blog by son Mark Memorial Day 2013 Guest Blog by son Mark

 

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Photo by Mary upstate NY

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Photo by Mary from upstate NY

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Neighbor’s Memorial Flags for Each War

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Poppy

from Memorial Day 2014

Twenty four notes. Taps. 

The Origin of Taps, The Bugler’s Cry  by  “Jari Villanueva, a former ceremonial bugler at Arlington National Cemetery”

from Memorial Day post 2015   Poppies  for Disabled Veterans Assistance Programsimg_6663

 

 

May they all rest in peace and may we never rest until we make peace last.
Thanks for this, Ruth. Too many helmets!
Love, L

Here is a link to Lois’ obituary 2013

 

Memorial Day 2013

My son Mark photographed the Marine Corps War Memorial when the family visited Arlington Cemetery a few weeks ago.  (The memorial is in Arlington VA, not in the actual cemetery)

When he showed me this photo today, I asked if he’d guest blog it for Memorial Day and he agreed.  Mark was in the USMC for six years.

We went for a walk this morning and there’s a little white clapboard church about 1/2 mile up the road.  Behind it was a small graveyard.

The third photo I took early Sunday in a rural cemetery by a headstone that had a flag in front of it.

This is the reflection (taken with a 70-200 Canon Lens L Series)

I read a moving article in the Roanoke Times (by Dan Casey) about the last of four brothers who served in WWII who tells the story of the other three who have gone on before.

This post is to remember all the men and women from every branch of the Armed Forces on Memorial Day 2013.

Photographed by Guest Blogger Mark, ( I loved the sun shining through the flag)

Marine Memorial at Arlington

Memorial to USMC

Flag reflection Gravestone

The VFW were outside the local Kroger

VFW Poppy

To read the poem  In Flanders Fields written by Lt Col. John McCrae, MD, hailing from Canadian Army  WWI  click here and see the original copy handwritten in a page of notepaper.