Honoring Memorial Day Part 2

 

  

In a small cemetery in the Dutch city of Roermond, one can visit this most unique set of tombstones. It comprises two almost identical pillars on either side of a wall separating the Catholic part from the Protestant part. Each pillar has a carved arm and hand that clasp the other across the wall. The monument marks the graves of Josephina Van Aefferden, a Catholic, and Jacobus Van Gorkum, a Protestant, who were happily married in life but had to be buried in separate sections of the cemetery. This Dutch listed it as a State Monument in 2002 and the "Grave with the Little Hands" proves that love is stronger than death. (And certainly stronger than mens' rules.)

Did you know that Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day? In the spring of 1866, Henry C. Welles, a druggist in the village of Waterloo, NY, suggested that the patriots who died in the Civil War should be honored by decorating their graves. A committee was formed and the plan was implemented. Decoration Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 and was first observed officially on May 30, 1868. The South did not observe Decoration Day, preferring to honor their dead on separate days until after WWI. In 1882 the name was changed to Memorial Day and soldiers who had died in other wars were also honored. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday to be held on the last Monday in May. While families may use the day for welcome-to-summer-fun, the original intent was to honor those who died for our freedom. 

Honoring Memorial Day

 

 

   

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Memorial Day Story

I could not let this day go by without once again sharing with you a story of mine first published in our EWGS Bulletin back in December 2007.

I was walking with my doggers in Fairmount Memorial Park (Spokane) soon after Memorial Day weekend back in 2007 and came upon a handwritten letter that had been placed in a bag and taped to a tombstone. The bagged note was blowing loose and so I picked it up and kept it. The letter read:

"To the Cemetary (sic) Flower Thief ........... I'm writing to tell you, whoever you are, that I don't appreciate having the planter stolen off my husband's grave every year. Also, those from other members of my family. 

"You are about as low as anyone can get---stealing from the dead. Don't you have any conscience at all? We who put flowers on our loved ones graves do it out of love. There is nothing else we can do for them and this is our way of saying, "I love you." Then to have some heartless thief steal them is stooping pretty low. I, and the other families whose plants you steal, don't know who you are, only that you are a selfish, mean thief who probably has a beautiful yard landscaped with our flowers, but God knows you. 

"Last year when I went to pick up my flowers to bring them home and plant them in my own yard as a continuing memorial to my husband, I met another lady from whom you had stolen three planters from her husband's and father's grave. She was heartbroken about it, especially for the one that one of her daughters had bought for her father. The girl had spent much more for it than she could afford but wanted it for her dearly-loved father and had planned to bring it back to him for Father's Day. You have no idea how much pain and anguish you bring to other people by your thievery and I very much doubt that you care.

"One last thing I'll say to you. I hope you will think better of it and not steal our flowers this year. If you do take them, I hope they will bring you nothing but guilt and unhappiness."

True story; I don't have that little note any longer but the Bulletin article included a facsimile of it.