Remembering who you are indebted

What meaning does Memorial Day have for your family?

For me, Memorial Day is a time to reflect upon the debt someone else paid so I could enjoy the freedoms fought for or maintained by men and women who wore the uniforms of the United States military.

Though I was out of state for the local observances, I’ve found them moving patriotic expressions in the past. Watching 1,000 plus fluttering US flags throughout Evergreen Cemetery reminds me why I enjoy life as I do here in this country.

Memorial Day, also called Decoration Day when I was a child, found me tagging along with Mom to decorate our family’s gravestones in two different cemeteries.

Even as a child, I wondered why small flags fluttered next to some gravestones. I learned flags were for soldiers who had served our country, some of them dying in wars.

Are you, like me, drawn to those gravesites, to read their names and their dates of death? It’s easy to stand there in my security and freedom, speculating on what life was, and could have been, for them. A sense of gratitude acknowledges that someone who didn’t know me, maybe someone who lived and died long before I was born, cared enough about our futures to risk life for us.

People I knew died in war, but the only relative who lost his life because he served in the military was my great-grandfather, Emanuel.

He served with Michigan’s Third Cavalry in 1864. Life had been difficult before he signed up, and more difficult for those he left behind by enlisting.  

His sister’s husband was an officer and she felt the family’s sacrifice was worth the expected outcome, which was, for Northerners, holding together the nation and abolishing slavery.

Emanuel never returned to Michigan, dying on my grandfather’s third birthday. His widow and children experienced destitution, but they also experienced a miracle or two along the way, and survived without receiving the government’s assistance for widows and orphans of fallen men.

Since then other family members, including my brothers and friends have served in the military.

Sometimes those at home learned to sacrifice for the good of those who were determined to keep war from our shores.

During WWII, at my parents’ church, as in many other churches, stars sewed to a wall hanging reminded parishioners to pray for those overseas.

Mom remembers Signe’s somber words, suspecting the space between letters from her WWII son likely meant he would not be coming home. He didn’t.

Another church member became a POW. He never took life or freedoms for granted again as long as he lived.

Once he stopped me, when I was just a teenager, to tell me he was praying for my generation.

I suspect he knew a lot about prayer. Many within this county experienced tragedies during their time in uniform, too.

A decade ago, we were attacked on our own soil. Since then, volunteers have stepped up to keep the home front safe and to help others secure freedoms we could easily take for granted.

Let’s look around and find someone to thank who wanted us, and our children and grandchildren, to enjoy life in this democracy.

We cannot repay the debt, but a “thank you” could let them know they, and our freedoms, are not taken for granted.

Also, let’s remember to vote next week, and let’s periodically express our views, to help ensure this great nation remembers its foundation and preserves its freedoms.

Marge Warder is a news reporter for the Red Oak Express. She can be contacted at mawarder@yahoo.com