Memorial Day

I was thinking about re-posting a post from Memorial Day last year, because it really sums up how I feel about memorial day and my gratitude for people living through some of the challenges that being in the military brings.  But yesterday, at an SCA event, they were doing toasts, and a gentleman got up to honor those who were part of the group that are or have served in the military.  He mentioned the time period that he was in the military (1960's-70's) and I thought about what it must have been like for him.  And I remembered a lady I met many years ago when my husband was deployed to Iraq.  I don't know if I've ever written about her, since this blog was begun later.

I was in the dressing room of the LDS temple.  I have no idea how we got to talking and how she found out that my husband was deployed overseas and that we had been students at Eastern.  She expressed her gratitude and told me how thankful for how different things were today.  Her husband had gone to Vietnam.  She had been left at home to single parent their five children.  During that time she decided to go get her Masters degree from Eastern.  I've often thought about this because of what must that have been like?  To be a "single" mom to five children, in an environment that was particularly anti-war, and treated soldiers that came home that way. 

And while we honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice, my mind rests on them, vets and their families that were treated like dirt because of doing what they were sent to do by their country. I hope we always remember that even when we feel like the cause is not just.  And I hope it doesn't happen again.  That we have no cause to treat a soldier that way, or try to extract guilt when there is already suffering (seen and unseen) we don't comprehend. 

So I seek to honor the dead and the living for their sacrifices today.