Day of Reflection

Its been a lovely couple of days in the Commonwealth. What happened to the humidity? During our morning walk so the dogs can do their constitutional before they have breakfast, one of our neighbors out walking said, accurately, that it feels like Maine in August. Actually I've never been to Maine, but I'll take their word for it.

Daughter#1 had a wonderful birthday as her bf spoils her rotten. They went to Newport for the weekend. She called before they left to tell us she had been featured in a local Connecticut magazine. if you promise not to stalk her, you can read the article here.

Today was a day for refection for those that have gone on before us. Specially Ann's family. Her Grandparents are gone, her parents, her brother and sister-in-law. We interred her Mother at Arlington last fall. She has been wanting to visit the graves of her father and brother for a while now. She grew up in the Maryland suburbs and that's where they are buried. They are buried in different cemeteries, but both are by the house she grew up in. So that's what we did today. I was afraid traffic on I95 and the Beltway would be chaotic due to the pending holiday, but it was better than normal. We drove by her house first. Its really kind of nice although the shrubbery really needs some attention. Next we drove to the Catholic cemetery on Georgia Avenue to visit her Father's grave. After stopping by the office to get the location and a map we drove over to where the site was suppose to be. We were given some misleading directions and it took about 15 minutes of searching to find his marker. I remember his funeral and how the Army sent out a unit from the Old Guard, the same unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. They performed the flag folding and gave a 21 gun salute and said the word:"On behalf of a grateful nation...." It was very moving. Ann's parents divorced when she was 13 and she only saw her dad on occasional weekends. As we all do, she was feeling guilty as we stood at his graveside, about not spending more time with him. We said a prayer and left some flowers. Next we headed to Parklawn cemetery. Its the first time I had been there. I'm not sure any one's been to the grave site in years. Her brother and sister in law died in a car crash. He was 24 and she was 29. Very tragic and very sad. Like at her father's grave, we talked about them (I never met them as I was only 16 when they died). Ann shed some tears as you might guess not at only at what had been but what was lost. It was a day to reflect on our losses, but its something we have needed to do for far too long now.