Memorial Day

The flag at White's Bridge, IN. 5/14/22

Today we remember the men and women who died in service for their country. While the day started to remember those who died in the Civil War, it now includes all fallen veterans whether they died in battle or after returning home.

Popularly, Memorial Day may be better known as the unofficial start of summer. 

It makes sense to pause to reflect on the lives changed by their time in service and thank the men and women who were and are ready and willing to lay their lives on the line so we can enjoy the freedoms that shape our land.

Thank you.

In Flanders Fields

John McRae (1872 - 1918)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

   That mark our place; and in the sky

   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie

    In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from falling hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

     If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

     In Flanders fields.

John McRae, a veteran before World War I, served in that war for the British as a surgeon in the First Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery. He wrote the poem the day after a friend was killed and buried in a make-shift grave near Flanders in Belgium.