Memorial Day has come and gone once again and, here in Casa Aylworth, we remembered--not just our men who defended the nation in wartime, but all our loved ones who have passed.
Both Roger and I have fathers who served in the U.S. Navy during WW II. His dad worked radar on the USS Aaron Ward. He was part of the plank crew (the first crew assigned to the Ward) and part of the final crew, the ones who sailed it home to be decommissioned after an enormous sea battle off Okinawa. The Ward knew only about one hour of combat, but during that hour took six kamikazes and a number of direct bomb hits. By the end of that hour, the Ward's deck rode barely above the water-line. (Note the Ward pictures, before and after.) My husband has always been hugely proud of his father's wartime service, and rightly so.
My dad always said he never saw battle, that he spent most of the war on a spit of land called FunaFuti (modern Tuvalu) in the Pacific barely large enough to land a plane. We believed him. It was in the aftermath of my parents' fiftieth anniversary party when a group of relatives sat about relaxing that Dad started to talk: "I landed on FunaFuti on my 21st birthday," he began, and he told a story none of us had heard about a full moon and bombers, foxholes, and sailors found dead in them the next morning. When he finished, my mother, wide-eyed, said, "People died on FunaFuti?" We heard more similar stories following that as he opened up about some of what he witnessed, including the aftermath of some of the Pacific's most terrible battles.
This week we are thinking of both our dads We are thinking about all the good men who, like my father-in-law, fought the good fight if only for an hour, and all the men like my own dad, who put aside their wartime trauma for ten years or fifty years or forever, and we'll remember to vote in the coming elections whether we like any of the candidates or not, simply to honor the fine men, most of them just boys, who died so we might have the privilege of voting.
We are also thinking of both our moms, my husband's only brother, and a granddaughter we lost when she was three months old. We'll pay respects this week to friends and neighbors, and others we care about as well, gone from us, but never forgotten.
We did not attend the Silver Dollar Fair, the annual four-day fair that has been a Memorial Day fixture in our town for decades. Many things aren't happening this year because of the lockdowns, including one grandson's high school graduation and our Golden Wedding Anniversary, coming next month.
"Staying safe by staying home" won't keep us from remembering all those we have loved and love still, and it won't keep us from honoring all who serve so that we might have the freedoms we enjoy.
May you all have a peaceful and pleasant Memorial Day.
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Yesterday I watched Pacific about the battles in WWII. It was on HBO. What an eye opener.
ReplyDeleteOh my, Susan: what a surprise on your parents' 50th anniversary! Thank you for sharing your photos and stories, Susan. {hugs}
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that, Susan.
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