MEMORY DAY

Country Grave Yard
courtesy photobucket.com

 

The weather was dreary with a little rain that day. I was about five years old and there were a lot of people congregating near the house where I lived.

They were all dressed in their Sunday best though it wasn't Sunday.

I had been out playing and was my usual dirty self but I wanted to find out what was going on.

One of the elder men said it's time to go and they all began to get in cars and since no one was noticing me so I climbed into one of the cars also.

It was only about three miles to our destination, and as the cars parked the people got out and prepared to go in a building which was a church. I joined them as they entered and I sat down with some people I had seen before and waited to see what was going to happen.

I looked down to the front and saw what turned out to be a coffin. Then a man got up and did some talking and read something out of a book.

Some music started and the people started to sing "Will the circle be unbroken". Several verses later they began to walk by the coffin on the way out of the church.

I walked in line with the people I sat next to and when I got to the coffin I saw my first dead person.

Perhaps I should have reacted differently but I just stared. They moved me on and out of the building and someone dropped me off near my home.

I was a little confused by my day's adventure.

It was the first time I had ever been in a church and the first time I saw someone who wasn't alive.

I never told my Ma about what happened. A little later she called me in and washed some of the dirt off of me.

  
The years have passed and my mind goes back to the days of yore, and from time to time memories of those who have gone on before flood my soul.

There were Great uncles and aunts that accepted me and treated me as their own.

Grand parents who helped me find my way growing up.

Mom and dad have been gone for quite some time and so also the aunts and uncles.

Then there are memories of friends who have preceded me. Some lost in the wars but most in peace time.

There are those who I didn't especially care for, that are gone but those feelings I once harbored, have changed as time has gone by and any grudge I might have had no longer exists.

Memories are to be enjoyed and the bad times must be modified in order for that to happen.

I remind myself that forgiveness is for the benefit of the one who forgives.

To bear a grudge beyond the grave is unprofitable.

On a day of memorial I remember those who were precious to me and I don't forget to love and enjoy those who are still with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpbHt7Cqjd8