Memorial Day. A day so many people spend celebrating the beginning of summer.  For me, I have remembered the sacrifice of others to give me freedom.  But this year, it has taken a brand new meaning to me.

This year I will be making a journey to the Houston VA Cemetery to visit the grave of my grandfather.  This will be hard, since I have not been to his gravesite yet.

Not because of me not liking it nor anything like that, but just because I haven’t been able to face he is gone.  He is… I know this as well as anyone else.  But in my memory he is still the person I saw laughing, playing guitar, even showing me how to do it.  Patient as you would never imagine, he gave me his time and love.  None of the grandchildren nor his children can say we were not loved by this man.

But this year, because of where he is at now, it reminds me of the sacrifices of those who fight for my freedom to post this post, to write the stories I do, to live my life.

I was not one for being ordered around.  My family would tell you this.  So while I was not suited for military life, I had given thought to follow my grandfather’s steps and serve in the Air Force.  My cousin did follow in his steps, choosing to serve, and to this day is in the National Guard.  My other cousin is a Marine. You never retire as a Marine.  And I am so proud of both of them!

Both of them, my cousin, who is his actual blood grandchild, who got him a flag from when he served that had flown over a camp, and his other grandchild, who was his brother’s Grandson, who served proudly, he had been very proud of.

He was a quiet man, to the point if he told you he loved you, you treasured it.  When he would just shake the hand of his grandsons in pride, they both knew it.

How many other veterans are out there, that people ignore?  How many people are buried on soil that is American only because we asked for it to bury our dead?  How many countries owe their freedom to our strength to defend the right of humanity?

Many of you rail at the ones still fighting for their country, but would you really want them to dessert their posts?  What if those soldiers in the Revolutionary war left their posts for food?  Yep, those are some of the ones we are honoring this weekend.  How about those that died in Pearl Harbor?  That were on the Arizona as she burned from the bombs dropped on her as she lay at harbor from a country we had not declared war on? Those that stormed Normady beach?  How about that devastating attack on our soil on 9/11? So many us screamed that we should do something, so we did.  And now people yell at them for doing it.   For those that fight, they are doing it for us.  yep, us, the ones that are sitting at home using our freedom of speech to protest them being where they are defending us?

What about the other soldiers that lost a leg, both legs?  Arms and other parts of their body sacrificed to keep us able to have the freedom to yell at them.  Think of that next time you talk about the war.  People have given their all, their very lives.  People who gave their body over to allow us to turn our noses up at them.

So while you are at your parties, at your celebration of summer starting, take a moment and think of those that gave all, for you to be able to celebrate that same freedom in the way you wish.

Tomorrow (or today depending where you are) I will be at the graveside of a veteran that was my grandfather, and saying thank you.  And while I am there, I will also be saying thank you to the rest of the soldiers there that served so that I can do what I wished.

To those still serving, Thank you.  Very much.

Wendy