When I was little, we would go to either Minersville (my dad's hometown) or Wellsville (my mom's hometown) for Memorial Day. We would cut flowers from the yard and wrap them in wet newspaper to take to the cemetery. There would always be irises, snowballs, and peonies. My mom would take canning jars and cover them with foil so that they would look better. At the cemetery we would put flowers on lots of graves. We had to put flowers on the graves of great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.
They were small towns so everybody would be at the cemetery. We had to stand around and wait for our parents and grandparents to talk. As a child it felt like they knew everybody at the cemetery. We would be there for hours. We were not allowed to run around in the cemetery because that would be disrespectful. We had to just stand around and wait for our parents. It was kind of boring. But I learned to honor my ancestors and remember them on Memorial Day.
It is still a tradition for me to honor those people I love on Memorial Day. Instead of getting flowers from my yard, I buy chrysanthemums from a store. Instead of going to one cemetery, I now go to four cemeteries. It is a little different to visit big cemeteries than the small town cemeteries I visited as a child. When I went to my sister Lisa's grave site yesterday, I ran into my other sister there at the same time. We spent a lot of time visiting while her daughter and granddaughter had to stand around and wait for us. I guess life has come full circle.
