HI Friends!! I hope your Memorial Day weekend is packed with good friends, loving family and great food!! This Memorial Day has really hit home to me as I have been in Santa Fe moving my sweet Dad to a retirement community where he can feel safe and enjoy his life. Serving our great county, I am so proud of his contribution and of so many others who are dear to my heart. The new friends we met shared their stories of being in the military and after so many years are still so very proud to have been able to serve all of us. Let’s take time to remember and honor those amazing individuals who have lost their lives and their families who have also sacrificed so much to protect what we hold dear!! And thanks goes to the military medical professionals and all of the members of the Armed Forces who have helped with the distribution of protective gear and the vaccine, leaving their families during this scary time to help us all during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is a bit of history and some inspirational quotes to put us all in the Memorial Day spirit!!

Originally called Decoration Day, from the early tradition of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths and flags, Memorial Day is a day for remembrance of those who have died in service to our country. It was first widely observed on May 30, 1868 to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of Gen. John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union sailors and soldiers.-source

During that first national commemoration, former Union Gen. and sitting Ohio Congressman James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried there.–-source

Various Washington officials, including General Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home, among others, made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers, and singing hymns. Many also came prepared with a picnic lunch. The observance has since been expanded to remember the deceased soldiers of any and all wars.–source

After World War I, it became an occasion for honoring those who died in all of America’s wars and was then more widely established as a national holiday throughout the United States.– source

By the end of the 19th century, state legislatures passed proclamations naming May 30 as the holiday because flowers were in bloom across the country.

Origionally named Decoration Day, a day to decorate the graves of our fallen solders, in 1971 the name changed to Memorial Day.

There is a National Moment of Remembrance on Memorial Day at 3 pm which asks that Americans pause in silence to honor those who have died serving the the U.S. This will become part of our families Memorial Day traditions!

“Let their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.” – Daniel Webster

And thanks goes to the military medical professionals and all of the members of the Armed Forces who have helped with the distribution of protective gear and the vaccine, leaving their families during this scary time to help us all during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We did not pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”- Ronald Reagan

“We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”

– James A. Garfield May 30, 1868 Arlington National Cemetery

Let’s hold on to, remember and thank all the special brave people that have served our country and fought for our freedom. Have a wonderful week! Till next time-xo Leslie