Bittersweet Memorial Day Remembrance…

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right … and a desire to know.”
— John Adams, 1765

By Michelle L. Warmath

On this day I remember a nurse who’s buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial (American Battle Monuments Commission) in Saint-Avold, France. I’d bring flowers for her when I lived in France, even if she is not of my family and I didn’t actually know her. Just because. I don’t just think of her on Memorial Day, either but it is a special day.

There are eight women in the peaceful Lorraine-American Cemetery, way over there in eastern France. They all volunteered for a cause; they all died for that cause. They could have stayed home safely with their families but they didn’t. And the war killed them one way or another, even if they weren’t on the front lines. Emma was from Kansas. She was 23.

The men and women buried at the cemetery are from every ethnic origin, all beliefs… all of the US States and Puerto Rico and other horizons too. Their units served in Europe and, for some, in North Africa. Several graves are of two brothers. One has three together. Each and every grave equally receives the same dignified and loving treatment and care from the Commission and the devoted staff of caretakers and the superintendents who know them all by name and story, not just by number, and who escort families unerringly through the neat forest of 10,931 impeccably spotless white marble markers to exactly the person they want to visit and stand at attention with them as they pay their respects. The people of Saint-Avold are frequent visitors to the Cemetery as well and have great affection for these servicemen and women.

We honor those who give their lives in service to the betterment of humanity in any way, to decency and dignity and equality and freedom and justice, unflinchingly and selflessly, irrespective of gender, no matter what service –military, civilian or volunteer. No matter who, no matter where from, no matter what their origins or the deities that may guide their paths.

That’s what Memorial Day is about. It’s not the ceremonies and parades; it’s the remembering and the honoring and the caring about and for the fallen who believed in good and turned that belief into action, and about and for their families. It’s about saying “We see you. We remember”. It should be that way every day.

In 2000, Congress passed The National Moment of Remembrance Act (Public Law 106-579) which designates “3:00 p.m. local time on [Memorial Day] as the time to join in prayer and to observe the National Moment of Remembrance.” (CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 146 (2000)

As it happens, Memorial Day weekend is also a long weekend. While we remember and pay tribute to the fallen and tell or retell their stories to the young, we can also – weather permitting – participate in events or cookouts and take advantage of the extra time to relax with family or take in some leisure activities. We can have a good weekend, though it be bittersweet. The one by no means precludes the other.

That’s part of the freedoms they died for.

Stay safe.