Memorial month

The first weekend May, the town of Garner celebrated the opening ceremonies of its War Memorial. It was incredible in its scope, incorporating EVERY war America has fought in, as well as the names of all Garnerites who gave the greatest sacrifice during each war. To help assist in the funding of the memorial, people could pay to honor those who served (but didn't die) by having their name and rank inscribed on a brick.

 

 

It was bittersweet. It was one thing to reflect on our heritage (and thank you to Congressman David Price for being the only one to include Scripture in his speech...Joshua 8), but it was also a little heartbreaking to hear names I knew and see grieving loved ones supporting each other. For the Webbs and the Sanchez families, "Freedom isn't free" has a totally different meaning.

 

And from there we moved onward to another memorial service, although similar, of a very different kind: Confederate Memorial Day.

My husband is a history buff. He had several ancestors who died fighting in the Civil War. It was my first trip to Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh (which has an entire section of nothing but civil war soldier graves). It's probably one of the most beautiful cemeteries I've been in. I love stone buildings, and the one below the hillside from the Gettysburg graves is absolutely stunning. I told Bobby as morbid as it sounded, I thought this cemetery would make an awesome place for a photo shoot.

 

Garner Sons of Conferederate Veterans had decorated each tomb with a flag. All the graves were originally numbered squares (which you can see near the tomstones), and historians painstakingly researched and validated records so each soldier could finally have a tombstone with name, rank, DOB and DOD. There's even a few Union soldiers who were mistakenly buried there. Their graves have a special footmarker with the details.

 

 During the tornadoes two years ago, many trees were blown over in the cemetery. Someone took the stump of this one and actually made a seat from it.

 And the irony of the old and new continuosly crack me up.

 A Marine came to pay his respects and visited the gravesite of his great (x3?) grandfather. He wasn't overly interested in the monologue of Stonewall Jackson's wife or much of the other stuff, though he did participate in all the militia ceremonies.

I was blown away by the differences in the two ceremonies. One a politically correct, patriotic meeting (with some new age stuff thrown in), and the other a historically, politically incorrect ceremony full of Scripture (and had more than Joshua 8), hymns, prayer, and heartfelt emotions (even from the Union ardist who yelled out during Dixie, the prayer, the flag ceremonies, but then escorted her children up to have their pictures made with the ones laying wreaths on the graves of ancestors).

It was an interesting weekend, and a reminder that we have a godly heritage that isn't perfect but is costly.We have so much to be thankful for.