Pictures From Memorial Day

This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. -- Exodus 12:14

I have talked about Ova Kelley before.  He was killed in the Philippines at Leyte in World War II.  The Wikipedia link has the citation for his Medal of Honor.

His remains were brought home and buried in the little cemetery by Oak Grove Freewill Baptist Church a few miles north of Norwood, Missouri on Highway E.

You can click to get a better look.

I rode by here yesterday and stopped just to see.  I suppose I expected something more elaborate.  Most of the graves are behind me as I took the picture.  It was nearing midday, so the shadows are short, and we are looking a little north of east.

This is our country.

World War II isn't the only conflict represented on this hilltop.

I left this place and rode on to meet my daughter at my wife's grave.  I had been to decorate at the graveyard where my in-laws are buried.  I went to where my wife's grandparents are buried as well.  Everywhere there are those who are neglected because families are too diminished or distant.  I don't need to worry about the graves of my parents or grandparents.  There are still a lot of us close by.  It will probably be another generation or two, perhaps longer, before we are too dispersed in time and space to place our little marks of remembrance on stone and earth.  

The truth is that these markers are for those of us left behind.  We are the ones who need to be reminded of what this life is about, of its impermanence and its brevity.  It is our currency.  We cannot hoard it.  It must be spent.  Spend wisely.