Written By Our Member Devona
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Growing up Memorial Day weekend meant fireworks, cookouts, some times camping, but always with friends and family. It meant no school and my parents didn’t have to work. Looking back I did not truly understand the importance of the day.
I am not sure the exact day, but one day during my sophomore year in high school something shifted. I don’t think just one thing caused this shift. It could have been that I was now surrounded by many other army brats. That my dad was off fighting in a war. It very easily could have been from many of my friends had parents that where wounded and/or lost their lives. The cause could have been seeing my dad along with so many soldiers come home but not fully be back home. It also could have been seeing my dads company of 110 men leave for war and only 100 made it home alive. Whatever the cause was as an adult I am grateful for it.
Memorial Day now means so much more to me now. We still do the fun things a lot of families do during the weekend. I am just so much more thankful for those moments with my own family. I think of the so many families that no longer have those moments. I teach my kids of the brave men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives so we may have our freedom.
I tell them of men like James Mort who was honored with a Purple Heart for saving a fellow solider and friend. I tell them of men like Frank V. Schumacher that proudly fought in the Korean War. I tell them of their 3rd cousin Matthew Frantz who proudly fought but lost his live in Iraq. That his parents still brag about him years later. I tell them about Tim Hanley that even though he physically made it home from war. It still caused him to take his life, leaving behind a beautiful family. I tell them about men like Matt McClintock who gave his own life in Afghanistan to save three other Green Berets even though it meant he wouldn’t make it home to his own family.
So today as you’re enjoying thins with your friends and families, the cookouts, fireworks, lake time or whatever you are doing. Please remember the families that do not have their loved ones with them this weekend. Remember the men and women whom have fought for us and lost their lives.
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