A Special Kind of Memorial Day

I had a grand plan to go and see four sites on Memorial Day. I thought it’d be so cool to knock off the war memorials from my list especially on Memorial Day…..

…but then I walked outside.

In my opinion, when you walk outside and within seconds you have sweat dripping down your back, it kind of ruins the excitement.

And I’m a dripper. Oh boy, I’m a dripper. I think I inherited it from my mom because now I’m the one who calls her and says “Mom, I’m sitting in the shade and I’m still drenched.” Yuck. Well I wasn’t about to have that ruin my entire day and I knew I wanted to at least go to the cemetery so after mustering the courage and re-applying some deodorant I headed out the door and into the humidity.

It wasn’t so bad once I gave up all hope of being dry.

I don’t know why I felt compelled to return to Arlington Cemetery. I mean, I’ve written about it before, and even though I could have gone somewhere different I wanted to experience Arlington on the very day we celebrate those who’ve sacrificed for our country.

I walked up the paths and savored the views of the light streaming through the trees and resting on the headstones. Every one of the over 300,000 graves was adorned with a small American flag. I wondered who took the time, probably during the night before, to place all those flags. I was grateful for them. Some had bouquets of roses lying on top, or just a single rose.

It was the first time I’ve seen people off the paths and sitting by the headstones. It was then that I realized that they were family members of the fallen.- a women by a husband’s grave, two parents by a son’s grave. It pulled at my heart strings.

The large American flag just in front of the Custis-Lee Mansion was flying at half-mast.

There was an added sacredness to the grounds that day. Something in the air and in my heart. Memorial day has always been just another holiday to me. Something that only meant a three-day weekend. It’s different now after being in this place. It’s something special and something to be remembered.