remembering those before

On Memorial Day we paid a visit, with Annie, Matt & Ada, to Springfield National Cemetery to pay our respects to my brother-in-law's grandparents and Clay's grandfather. Is it fortuitous that my sister and I both married Springfield boys and that their grandparents' graves are within sight of each other?

Margaret and William were not fortunate enough to meet their Hill great grandparents or their great grandfather James William (Papa Bill). But they can still honor them in memory. And here William is told about one of his namesakes:

He looks very honored. And solemn. Remembering how countless men have risked their lives to save us from tyrannical rulers...
Whoops! I may have gotten the wrong picture there. Their cousin Ada is really an adorable and sweet little girl and not at all a tyrannical ruler. I think she was really expostulating about the noble deeds done by her great grandfather in the three wars that he served in.

Other family members were in our thoughts, including my Grandad Dey who served as a paratrooper in WWII. It is a little sad that our children will not grow up sitting around Grandad's living room, listening to uproarious retellings of his war experiences. His humor masked the great sacrifice that was involved.

In Flanders FieldLieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (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 failing 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.