Every year before this one, I always wished everyone a Happy Memorial Day. Because that’s what you say, right?
I would’ve been excited about the three day weekend and the unofficial start of summer. Praying for nice weather for the official opening of the pool. Probably trying to decide which book to read next if I wasn’t already into one. And of course looking forward to hot dogs or hamburgers or maybe both.
But this year something changed. I started questioning the use of the word “Happy” with “Memorial Day.”
I’m sure it had to do with being moved to tears during our jaunt to the Garden of the Missing in the American Cemetery at Normandy last summer.
I’ll never forget our tour guide on the way to the cemetery telling us to be sure to see it. How very beautiful it was.
I remember thinking, It’s nice, and the roses are pretty and all but it’s kind of plain and subdued as far as gardens go. Wonder why she thought this was so nice?
Right about then is when my husband said, more to himself than me, “My God. Look at all the names.”
I wasn’t expecting to see the plaque inside one of the bunkers at Pointe du Hoc honoring the Army Rangers who had scaled the cliffs to capture that strategic point during D-Day operations in 1944 and gave their lives doing so.
I wasn’t expecting to see the massive sculpture set in the sand at Omaha Beach or the towering monument marking the very bloody battle where thousands of servicemen died in a move that would greatly impact the war.
So, yeah. “Happy” no longer seems a fitting pairing with “Memorial Day.”
All I know how to humbly say now is blessings to those who have given their lives serving our country, and blessings to the loved ones who’ve had to continue on without them.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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