Country Roads

This Memorial Day will be unlike any other Memorial Day in the past. Most all Memorial Day services are cancelled including the one at my hometown cemetery. It is sad but with the virus pandemic, coming together in a large group as is usually done is being avoided. For years as Decoration Day and years later as a Memorial Day there have been veterans groups coming together in their uniforms standing at attention with Ole Glory by their side. Patriotic speeches and prayers are given and then wreaths are placed in honor of the living and the deceased. Taps are heard as the crowd stands in silence. Then there is the firing of rifles in honor of those soldiers who gave their life in battle or lived to tell about it but are no longer with us.

There is just something about Memorial Day services I can’t explain. It is the full showing of honor to our soldiers, veterans, their families and, of course, to our country. It is so patriotic. It brings a tear or two to our eyes. It is sad these services are not being held this year as these patriotic memorials are something we all need right now. Hopefully, the Memorial Day services held next year will be filled to the brim with extra meaning and even more expressions of honor. The American Flags will be flying, the people will be gathering in patriotic fellowship and remembrance. So when decorating the grave sites of our loved ones, please note the small red, white and blue flags that are so carefully placed each year at a veteran’s grave site. Take time to remember their sacrifices and be thankful they answered their country’s call to duty.

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Having several cemeteries to visit and decorate grave sites in preparation for the coming Memorial Day, my husband and I decided our annual visit to the Maple Grove Cemetery near Narka would be made Sunday afternoon. Since I was a young child, my family would make their annual visit to this small country cemetery, which is surrounded by farmland. It is an important cemetery to me and I’m thankful I walked with my father around the cemetery as he would point out the many memorial stones of his family. I can remember my parents telling me it was such a comfort knowing their little baby son had been buried right next to my father’s little brother who died at the age of 6.

So Sunday, after visiting my little brother and little uncle’s grave sites, I walked the route around the cemetery looking once again at all of my Granny Boyles’ beloved sisters, brothers and their spouses’ memorial stones, remembering each one of them and the stories my father shared about each one. Granny was one of 10 children and all but three are buried in this cemetery. Granny’s parents’ and her grandparents’ grave sites are here also. Granny told me how as a young girl all the school children, a town band, veterans and others in the community would march in a annual parade to this cemetery from town and place flowers on the graves on Decoration Day.

I remember visiting and seeing many of Granny’s siblings, their spouses and their families at the annual Cossaart reunions held on the Sunday before Labor Day. Several years ago, the younger generation was so spread out in distance, interest in continuing the reunion lost and the reunions ceased. The older one gets, the more important family reunions and memory sharing becomes. Talk has recently stirred up via social media to possibly hold a Cossaart Cousins Reunion once again. I hope it happens. It is important to pass on these family memories to the youngest generation.

When visiting the cemeteries this Memorial Day, I hope those memories of the departed loved ones will be stirred up and shared with the children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.