Remembrance

One would think that I didn't own a camera.  I attended my great niece's high school graduation on Thursday and made sure that I put not only one camera, but two cameras, in my overnight bag.  Then, as we were about to enter the stadium, I thought about the camera.  And, do you think I had either one of them with me?????????


It was a somewhat sobering reminder of how time goes by when I recalled that I had graduated from this same high school forty-two years ago.   And all my siblings (who are older than me) also graduated from that same school.

As I sat there watching people go by, my brother who has continued to live in that community pointed out various people that I would have known in the past.  I was amazed to realize that I would not have recognized some of them.  In our mind, we see ourselves in a certain way and do not see the real image we portray.  Likewise, we maintain the memory of people we knew and it is very difficult to transform those memories to coincide with their appearance today.

With tomorrow being Memorial Day, it is most fitting that I am in a reflective mood.  My oldest brother, who has now passed away, was a veteran of the Army just at the end of the Korean War.  My next brother was in the Navy, the next brother was in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and the youngest brother was in the National Guard for many, many years, beginning at the height of the Vietnam War.   And, last but certainly not least, my husband had an Air Force career spanning almost thirty-one years.  Their service to our country is so ingrained in my perceptions of them that I forget to give them due credit.    

From a display at the International Peace Gardens on the border of the US and Canada 

I will remember.  May you do the same.