Remembering on Memorial Day

The weekend would usually be coming to a close right about now as everyone would be getting ready for their work week.  Today seems like Saturday and tomorrow will feel like Sunday except I will be able to sleep in and not get ready for my Sunday school class I teach.  It will be the last day of the Orange Show and it almost even rained for that occasion.  Then of course is the main reason we all get to stay home and have barbecues and relax or do whatever...Memorial Day.

At cemeteries people will be remembering their loved ones and red, white and blue flags will be placed at graves.  Tomorrow would be especially nice to go and visit my Dad at his grave at Riverside National Cemetery so I could see all those flags and be thankful for my Dad and how he served in the Navy.  I would go but I know it will be super crowded and not to mention the fact that his birthday is this coming Saturday, June 4th.  I will visit him on the Friday before his birthday so I can go all alone and no have to feel guilty about not taking the kids.  There are just times I need that with my Dad.  I will look for five minutes for his grave as I always do in the sea of grave stones of the so many people who served in the military who are buried there.  When I find him I will say as I always do..."There you are Daddy". 

I will talk to him about my drive there as I arrange his flowers just the way I think they should be and then I will sit down and be quiet in my thoughts with memories of him and sing him happy birthday somewhere in between.  I will laugh and smile as I talk to him and then I will cry, it may get easier each year but it always hurts somehow. 

I remember when I was a teenager and Memorial Day would roll around.  My Dad always loved to barbecue and my mom loved to make her potato salad and we would have fun in our big backyard on Sycamore.  We would have water gun and water balloon fights while my niece Jennifer and my Grandma Lillie watched and laughed.  Wow.  That seems like only yesterday, but It was oh so long ago.  Jen, Grandma and my Dad are all no longer here anymore and all we are left with is memories. 

I always envisioned when I had my family they would add to the fun with my family.  But times change and people go to Heaven and move away and the family you envisioned isn't that kind of a family after all.  It makes me sad.  Tomorrow on Memorial Day I will be doing laundry and spending time alone as my kids go to the Orange Show with their Dad.  I wonder what they will remember when they are my age of their Memorial Days past.

I am grateful for all those who are serving in the Military fighting  for our freedom and to those who have served in the past.  My heart goes out to all the families who have lost a loved one in a war fought for us.  Let's all remember the reason we get an extra day off work. 

Thanks Dad-I love you and will be there on Friday.