Memorial Day 2024

 

Tomorrow the local Veterans' Club is having their annual memorial service and I will attend.  They always have a special guest who talks about a special program that helps veterans.

One of their leaders posted this message:

The National Moment of Remembrance is an annual event that asks Americans, wherever they are at 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, to pause for a duration of one minute to remember those who have died in military service to the United States. The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying time off of work for the national holiday. The Moment was first proclaimed in May 2000 for Memorial Day that year, and was put in law by the United States Congress in December 2000.

The idea for the Moment was born in May 1996 when children touring Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, the nation’s capital, were asked by the Commission’s Director what Memorial Day means. They responded, "That’s the day the pools open."  A May 2000 Gallup poll revealed that only 28% of Americans knew the true meaning of Memorial Day. The White House Commission on Remembrance was established by Congress (via PL 106-579) to promote the values of Memorial Day by acts of remembrance throughout the year.

The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events, but is a specific time designated to remember the legacy of the holiday. As detailed by the official act, "Congress called on the people of the United States, in a symbolic act of unity, to observe a National Moment of Remembrance to honor the men and women of the United States who died in the pursuit of freedom and peace."

I will try to remember to pause whatever I am doing at 3:00pm local time.  The event I mention above is happening early in the day.

I am working on a red, white, and blue scarf that I will donate to a veterans' group.  Not sure which one; I used to send them to the WWII Museum but they aren't collecting currently.

The other Mother's Day.

We had the week-late Mother's Day today, with Thai food and a surprise arrival by the younger granddaughter, driving from her new home in DC (closed on the condo midweek) back to Charlotte to finish packing up and bidding her roommates and their dogs good-bye.

It was a fun afternoon with cupcakes and ice-cream to end the meal, and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and no sugar almond cookies, and stories of the girls as younglings, and my brother and I as wee ones, and fresh eggs from my brother and sister-in-law's chickens.

Different chickens lay different colours and shapes.
The blue one is more intense in reality.

Work was busy, and I restarted the test sweater, and I managed to register for DFW Fiber Fest 2024.  For a few timeslots I had to make a decision about the class to take - which isn't easy!  I checked shows and there aren't ones at most of the theatres I usually visit, so I may have quiet evenings, or I may visit friends.  Geopolitically it's been a tough week.  And I learned that our beloved, retired cantor died in March, and I'm upset at missing the original notice.

Mother's Day 2024

We're postponing the big celebration until next week, because my niece's boyfriend graduated with his master's degree yesterday so my brother's family has been there to celebrate and bring back furniture.  Also, my mother and father aren't quite up to celebrations following surgeries.

So, my parents and I have been cleaning out closets (I know, so exciting) and I'll make a cheese soufflé for supper with a side of asparagus.

Photo is from a Mother's Day brunch of seven years ago, showing me and my grandmother and my mother, and my mother's aide of the time who'd been providing services to my grandfather and grandmother for many years:

Motherhood is complicated as is daughterhood, and we're doing okay.

Her 108th Birthday

My grandmother would have been 108 years old today.  She died late last May, two weeks after her 107th birthday.

Photo taken on one of last trips.  My grandmother
is watching a video of her beloved Pavarotti.

It's been a complicated year for me, emotionally.  We were close and yet often disagreed.  More than once since last May I've found myself thinking about telling her something, sending her something - and I cannot.  I had to remind myself that there's no longer a need to send a card at a holiday, or a postcard from my travels, or to make a vest or some other item as a birthday or holiday gift.

In the Jewish tradition, you spend a full year mourning a close relative.  I am coming to the end of that year, and yet in some ways, the mourning never ends.  As long as there are memories, I will miss not being able to make more with her.

As my mother often says, 107 years is a good long run.  I am glad I was able to visit and celebrate that final birthday with my grandmother.