Happy Veteran's Day - I'm grateful for this beautiful time to celebrate and honor the sacrifices made by countless soldiers and families to protect our freedom over so many years. The kids were in school, but Darren and I enjoyed some quality time with the littlest and even a lunch date with some friends.
It reminded me I never posted the following from last Memorial Day, ages ago....
My parents both grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah but shortly after they married, finished school in Boston and settled in Tennessee for about 20 years. After mostly raising the family there, they returned to Salt Lake when I was 8. However, despite being far from relatives, every Memorial Day away was spent sprucing up the loneliest, least looked-after gravestones we could find in a nearby cemetery. It felt natural to follow suit out here.
It was such a beautiful cemetery with thoughtful memorials and lovely landscaping, especially around the infants section. (I'd never seen a lay out like that, all the little gravestones clustered together with many toys and trinkets accompanying each one. Heartbreakingly beautiful.)
I do look forward to the day we get to decorate our ancestors graves with our extended family again, but it felt nice to do some small thing here for some who have passed on and didn't look to have any family in the area. People are people, and each has their story. Cemetaries provide a unique and beautiful opportunity to ponder the individual lives that come and go in every corner of the earth.
