Memorial Day

What is a memorial?

The definition is "something, especially a structure, established to remind people of a person or event.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in our country's armed forces.

So we remember Christian Skoglund and his service in the Army.

Sadly, we all now have a little box with a gold star in it.   And a wonderful memory of a tall, handsome, fun loving, very competitive man who became family with us.

My dad and uncles fought in WWII.  My grandfather in WWI and I recently discovered that he fought in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive,  a major part of the final Allied offensive of World War I, but terrible trench warfare.

But I've also discovered recently, another figure from WWI, who wasn't an American but a British nurse serving in Belgium.

Edith Cavall.

She was a strong Christian, with a belief in helping people, both the allies and enemy soldiers.  She was credited with helping 200 British soldiers escape to neutral Holland.  She was also a spy, secreting out to the British, German activities.

She was executed by firing squad by the Germans on October 12, 1915.

She was a heroine and a martyr. 

And I was so impressed with her story and courage and strength in a very difficult time.

Imagine my surprise when visiting Moores Hill Lilacs , in Potsdam, New York, and discovering a lilac named after Edith Cavall.

I bought a bush and planted it in my newly established lilac patch in front of our 1885 barn at the Inn.

Perhaps a memorial.....I don't know. 

But she is an inspiration to me.

To live with honor.