Happy Memorial Day!!!

I love living where I can go and remember those who have given so much for me.  We were able to go to Point Loma Naval Cemetery yesterday to remember Great-Grandpa & Grandma Joyal.  Even though he is not biologically mine he was the Great-Grandpa I grew up.  When I was very young I vaguely remember visiting them in their home in San Diego, CA.  Shortly after that the family moved them to Utah to be closer to my Grandpa so they would have someone to help take care of them as they got older.  It is then that I have the most memories of Great-Grands Joyal.  We would go visit them in their apartment at Brickyard where me and my siblings would chase the ducks and toss rocks in the ponds.  We were always welcome in their home and they always had candy for us.  For a long time I loved the smell of cigars as Grandpa Joyal would smoke them.  He had a special place in my heart and I remember how upset I was that I was too little to go and visit him in the hospital while he fought his last battle with lung cancer.  We then brought him back to San Diego to be buried among his fellow brothers in arms. I must have been in the car with my Grandma Joyal as we drove to the cemetery because I remember her telling us about how when they would drive onto base that the enlisted would have to salute them as they drove around base.  She truly enjoyed that and being the wife of a man who served his country that was very important.  So even though there hasn't been family in Southern California for years, she wanted to be with her husband in the military cemetery.

Visiting graves on memorial day is something I really enjoy doing.  But yesterday was the first time I had been to a military one on memorial day.  There is a very unique and overwhelming feeling of gratitude to every person who is there.  Every grave has a flag even that of a soldier infant daughter.  Because it is not just the soldier who have given so much for this country but their families who stay behind and support their soldier with notes of encouragement and love from home.  There was a great sense of patriotism also in that cemetery.  They must be getting ready to replace the grass as the lawn was dead and the ground was hard so there were several flags that had fallen over.  After visiting the grave we joined in with a couple of others that were there to pick up the fallen flags and place them back in the ground these men and women deserve to have others do what they could not make sure that the flag was off the ground and respected.   I am grateful for those who have served.  Both my grandpa's and a couple of uncles.  They risked it all and were among those that were brought home alive.  But there were others and we got to read their stories who choose to give their life to save those who were serving with them.
Pictures to come