I Will Remember You

Where I'm originally from, Memorial Day is called Decoration Day and we honor all those we've lost, not just the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. I grew up with Decoration Day being a time to visit our family plots and set flowers on the grave sites, telling stories about our departed to try to remember and honor them.



Today I want to honor some people I've lost, some of whom have grave sites too distant for me to show my respects in any material way.



Today, I remember:



1. My dad, with whom I had a stormy relationship throughout most of my youth, but who became my touchstone in the last decade of his life.



2. Mamaw Herd, a true Southern lady who could mix batter with one hand while using the other to load and fire a BB gun at stray dogs she felt were getting too close to where I was playing on the porch. She taught me how to crochet, and she made the patchwork quilt I nap under. She was my favorite person as a kid.



3. Papaw Herd, a protector and healer of small creatures. He had a healing touch with sick youngsters and stray animals and once nursed an orphaned flying squirrel back to health and kept it for a short time as a pet. He also helped my mom to get me through pneumonia when I was 6 weeks old and cried at my first birthday because he didn't thinkI would live to reach that milestone.



4. Martin, the grandfather I never knew.



5. "Mick", my husband's wonderful grandmother, the best cook I've ever known. She made pecan pull-aparts that made grown men cry. Every break from college, she had Jason call me to find out what I wanted her to cook me for dinner (and it was always her chicken and dumplins.) More than anyone else in Jason's family, she welcomed me as one of her own.



6. Steve, my husband's stepfather who we lost entirely too suddenly and too soon. He had a huge heart, and had no reservations about marrying a divorcee with six children. He provided for Jason and his brothers and sisters as though they were his children. A neon artist and sign-maker, his works can still be seen in the tri-state area. And man, could he throw a party.



7. Christine, my sister's friend who bought me the cancer survival handbook Love, Medicine, and Miracles when I was sick and put a wonderfully inspirational note in it about beating cancer. A year later, her breast cancer returned and within weeks she was gone. She was young, athletic, and a true fighter, and her death was very hard for my sister and I to accept. Her words of inspiration comfort me nevertheless to this day.



8. Jessica, the student in one of my freshman English classes my first year of teaching who died in a senseless car accident in the last weeks of school. The only thing harder than seeing her young face in a casket was teaching in a classroom with a tragically empty desk the rest of the year.



9. Brandon, the husband of a friend I met through my high-school buddies, and the first person my own age whose visitation I attended. He left behind a pregnant wife and did not live to see his only child, a son, born.



To all these souls, may you rest in peace. You will never be forgotten.