Poet Maya Angelou wrote, “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”
Here in the United States, Memorial Day weekend serves as the traditional kick off for summertime and everything good that comes to mind about the season . . .
. . . families and friends gathering for backyard barbecues, and the promise of seeing children running through green grass in their bare feet, lighting sparklers and catching fireflies.
But for many, Memorial Day celebrations will also include a parade and, perhaps, a somber grave site ceremony because, at its heart, Memorial Day is a day set apart for remembering and honoring.
Both of my parents served during World War II—my father in the Navy and my mother as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
My late partner, Christine, served during the Vietnam era, also as a Lieutenant, in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps.
I’m grateful for the service of each of these people in my life and, especially, for the healing care tendered by both my mother and Chris to those exposed to the wounds and trauma of combat.
Many veterans hold their memories close to the heart and have no desire to re-live painful experiences. Others tell amazing stories of camaraderie and friendships forged through hardship, and of witnessing events that most of us know of only through history books.
I hope you’ll take some time this weekend to reflect and remember, and to honor those who sacrificed and gave of themselves for others. If you have friends or family members who have served, or are serving now, maybe you could ask them to share a story or two.
Whatever your plans for the weekend, as you gather in your backyard or around pools and picnic tables, I hope your celebration is sweet. As summer kicks off, I’m looking forward to another season of creating memories with family and friends that will last a lifetime.
And I’m grateful for the chance to remember the heroes and she-roes in my life.
Do you have a family member or friend for whom you’d like to offer a Memorial Day tribute? Please share it with me in the comments below.
your story is inturesting lyndi and you are so hianworkrdg & caring girl, world needs persons like. to make it a better place ahn, yup right, you believe it right
Yes, we are also remembering our heroes and she-roes!
I will tell to you and to others a story. Many years ago when I was in army we visited a far away located school with the patron name a name of Navy hero.
One little girl 7-8 years old asked us: for sure you are doing some hero action every day?
I answered to her: No, because we are working properly every day. Our every day hero action is to do our duties as properly to not be needed somebody to act as hero covering job results of “clever” guy. The price of hero action usually is human life like in case of patron of your school.
Actually in my haste instated my dad, my first hero, served WW1 but that was his father. My father served in WW11.
I always think of my Uncle Al, Alvin Ungerleider, who was part of D-Day and liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp. He stayed in the Army for many more years, was a general when he died a few years ago and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This summer, I’m going to his tiny hometown in Pennsylvania, where they are dedicating a statue in his memory.
So many heroes…. thanks, thanks… and thanks again!!!
It has been said that throughout all of the years earth has had 10,000,000 light workers
born on planet earth . There are only 3 million left today. Seven million light workers ( men and women) have been killed in all the wars that have and are continuing to ravage this planet. Currently
there are 3,000,000 million light workers still present who are engaging in thoughts, feelings
and actions that create love and light. Many more light workers are needed to transform this
planet to one where love, peace, and joy prevail.
I grieve for all the light workers who have sacrificed their lives in the name of war to right the
wrongs that mankind continues to perpetuate in the name of peace. I honor them for their
courage and bravery. At the same time I pray that the people of this planet take their power
back from those who continue to perpetuate fear which causes the anger and hate
It takes each of us to look inside and find the fear that perpetuates hate and anger, choose to forgive ourselves and others , choose to replace it with peace and love. This the only thing that will
transform this planet to a loving, positive, peaceful and fun place to live.
Thank you for inviting me to share my thoughts and feelings
Benita Zink
Both my parents served in WWII. Dad was in the Marines; Mom, the Waves. They ended up at Paris Island at the end of the War. Both were jailers, so that is how they met. She was from Boston; he from Hardy, Arkansas (a ‘don’t blink you will miss it’ town in north Arkansas). You couldn’t find two people so DIFFERENT! My dad remembered the depression. She wasn’t aware of the depression at all. It had not touched her family on the east coast. Or at least, it had not touched her. She was an outgoing friendly people person. He was quiet, a little shy, and a little reserved. She didn’t know how to boil water when they married. She had been raised in high society by a pharmacist and his wife. His dad was the town major (of a minuscule town) and raised cattle. My dad was a basketball star in high school and had been offered a scholarship to the major university but he decided to enlist with his best friend. His friend was killed during the War. My mom said she enlisted because she wanted “to see the world.” To the end of her life, one of her greatest joys was traveling! My Dad came home from the War with PTSD, however, at the time there was no diagnosis; and no help. Our lives were often either glorious or traumatic: for he also was bipolar. However, at the time there was no knowledge of that condition either. WW III happened in our home often. Violence. Chaos. However, there were grand times also. He could be just as much fun and just as loving as he could be out of control. My mom had to learn how to cook, clean, and take care of a house; and had to learn how to care for a baby, while fending off his rages and/or ideas to go here or there at the drop of a pin! He settled some as he aged; she learned how to be her own person as she moved into her 50s. She died in 2008 after a stroke, and he died last year after a stroke. He would have turned 90 in July. One of his favorite activities toward the end of his life was talking on the phone to classmates and other veterans, or rehashing their experiences as they waited to see doctors at the VA hospital where they were being treated for one thing or another at their advanced ages. Families today are living through the same kind of inconceivable difficulties with some of our returning veterans, and the veterans, and their families, deserve our compassion, the services they so desperately need, and the expectation that change can and will happen. Hats off to those professionals who work with veterans and their families on this 2014 Memorial Day. God bless you!
That was beautiful to read. Thanks for the reminder. Shirley
Many family members who served in WWII and the Korean War and especially to my uncle-by-marriage a Major General in the Marines who fought in several wars. He was a courageous, honest and surprisingly gentle man who treated every person he met as if they were special. He never stopped serving this country as a soldier and as a human being, and modeled compassion and generosity to all who knew him.
I have enjoyed the Memorial Day concert on PBS this evening honouring all of our heros both male and female. I am honouring my late husband who came in on Omaha Beach and climbed the cliffs on Point de Hoc in 1944 and lived to tell the story to his grandchildren. He was my hero and passed away in August of last year. The story of his unit, the 2nd Ranger Battalion was told on the program tonight on PBS and how so many died that very difficult day in our history. All the brave men and women who have served our country so unselfishly deserve to be honoured as they have provided us with the freedom that we so value today.
Thanks for your thoughtful post and allowing me to focus on my heroes. I realize I have heroes from different parts and phases of my life, but my earliest hero was my brother who spoke for me until I started talking at nearly four years old. He had an uncanny ability to express my thoughts to my Mom when she asked me “What is bothering you?” Jim also led me into drug and alcohol counseling after his death a few years ago from a drug overdose. Everyday, as I work with my homeless client, I see someone who touches my psyche deeply as Jim did.
My beloved brother, Tim, served in Vietnam Nam and died at age 29 after a long battle with cancer caused by exposure to agent orange.
Fiercely against that war, I regret never having expressed any appreciation or respect for his service there, and all the the horrors, losses and I don’t know what all else he experienced fighting, in my name, a war he came to believe was wrong and that ultimately cost him his life.
Growing up, my big brother was my hero, my protector, playmate and the one person in my family who I felt loved me.
He brought fun and joy to many, and lived life with courage, tenacity, exuberance, warmth and spirited grace.
At age 65 I still miss him.
By chance encounter, I had served as an U. S. Airman during the Korean War in the 1950s
Years later back in New York City, in the 1990s, I did steady volunteer Feldenkrais work with survivors, the Widows and children of those who had perished, those whom I consider the heroes and heroins of the terrible 911 calamity.
John F. Quinn.
G.C. F. P.
HONOR THE DEAD….HEAL THE WOUNDED…END THE WAR (S)
My first hero was my dad who was in the first groups of army air corps that became the US Air Force. Beyond what he did to serve and protect in World War 1, he was able to rescue about 10 airmen from being burned to death in a firey bomber plane crash. No surprise he never spoke of this among many “heroic” events he did because like so many “he was just doing his job”. My mom is my first she-ro. She kept our family thriving as my dad served. She made sure we never went to bed hungry and always had my dad’s thick stiff kakis clean and ironed to perfection. We were never assigned duty in Camelot but we were raised with wonderfully strong values of survival and compassion for humanity. Thank you, dad and mom. THANK YOU to those who serve on the job at work on base and on the job at home. With love and support for all that you have done and all that you do every day, Judy
My dad was also in the Army Corps that became the first Air Force! He inspired my son from a young age, who is now an Officer in the US Air Force. I am so proud of his integriity and hard work to keep us all safe.
Call me wind because I am abeolutsly blown away.
Thank you for reminding us to honor the brave people who provided us freedom of choice in how we serve:
My father in law who spent two years as a German prisoner of war in WW1,
My cousin Francis who died in the Battle of the Bulge during WW11
My husband, Bob who served in Korea
My Brother Jim who served as a Marine jet pilot
All those aunts and great aunts who delivered babies in Ireland. The family service for women has been nurse midwifery for many generations.
My mom became a pychiatric nurse and at age 100 was stil directing a program she developed feeding 250 homeless daily. She’s gone but the program is thriving.
My mother’s cousin wrote a poem about a local man who died in World War 1. The poem shows he was a hero, but he died on much more mundane work- he was going back and fore into No Man’s Land to rescue the wounded. He was a real inspiration.
Listen people to the story of a gallant soldier please
Company Sergeant Major Skinner, pride of our KOSB’s
He fought well for king and country in hard battles overseas
Bringing honour yes and glory, to the legion of VC’s’
With grenades and belly-crawling over No Man’s Land again
Round the three block- houses left flank, Jock with single handed skill
Bombs and takes the nearest pill-box, on squad on! Now for the kill
A few weeks after his surprise return, on 17th March 1918,
on the Bellevue Spur near Vlamertinge, Jock crawled out
into no-man’s-land to recover the bodies of dead comrades
He continued to return to no-man’s-land to bring back
wounded soldiers but was killed along with accompanying
stretcher-bearers.
to me was i’m sure we’ll see eachother again’. and i still do beeivle that, that this world is a dream from which we will awaken one day, to find ourselves in a place we know so well, but had forgotten we came from. see you there. save me a seat, keep a fire going. i’m gonna take my time but i’ll be there soon enough.jasoni had a ween shirt on, july 5, 1996 mark twain national park missourri. i was at dinner circle early, sitting by myself. i had to pee so i left my stuff, notebook, bowl, etc. and went back to the woods. when i was walking back i noticed you were sitting next to my stuff. i was kinda trying to keep myself away from woman, as i was lonely and yet kinda wanted to figure out what i was doing before i just fell into anything. i thought, oh, can’t get away from this one, that’d be rude. you had multi-colored dreads with colorful berets, a lime green kurt cobain style sweater and flowery skirt. i liked you, your style, even from the back. as i was sitting down, i heard you telling someone your name was mary. all my life i had been telling myself that i’d meet a girl named mary and she would be the one. when i heard your name my mind thought a thousand thoughts, chief rational among them to not leave that spot without your last name or number. you said you had squatted in west philly, i had just come from west philly where i lived. you said you were from ewing, my friend cindie who got me there to missourri was from ewing. you were perfect, i felt like i was in the perfect spot, like i never have before or since and fear never will again. we held hands and ohmed, ate, smoked, talked. at some point two younger girls had their heads on my knees and i thought that it was good i wasn’t freaking out (in my head) about it cause i knew all i wanted was to be there with you. and then two seconds later i was freaked out, suddenly stood up and walked away. even as i walked away it was like a dream, my thoughts being answered and responded to by the pieces of conversations i happened to hear as i made my way through the group of people. i thought i was going back to music, that i had to do that, that i would use it to call you back. which is ridiculous cause if i had just turned around and the truth is, i think i was just scared of the reality, the opportunity to fuck up something i knew i really wanted, more than i have known much of anything else. within an hour i ran back to the dinner circle in hopes of finding you, but i could not find you. there was that huge crazy storm three days later. i traveled in a lame attempt to find you for a couple of months here and there for the next five years or so. swinging between faith or belief and embarassment and hopelessness. leaving and returning to philadelphia. i have many songs that speak about you, my daydream of you, directly or indirectly, at length or briefly. the last one i did last february, if ever after’. i am gonna make a zine, put all these words i seem able to conjure when i think about you, there’s much more, of course, it’s just further into my own personal rabbit hole. i really wanted to find you in there waiting for me to finally arrive. a zine with a cd, the story i have made up around our momentary meeting, the songs that pertain to it. i’m gonna ask jane gilday or whoever if it would be ok to put hollywood love’ on there at the end, it’s to damn appropriate to the story not to.and it shall be called whither thou wilt’ok. thanks. sorry i walked away, that i was too late, that i got distracted. you were always on my mindjason
My hero, CPT. Christopher Soelzer, KIA OIF 12/24/2003. Love of my life! I miss him everyday.