Memorial Day

"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields."

John McCrae, 1915. 

 

My husband was a VietNam Vet..

and every year we always purchased our

poppies from an aged Vet

standing outside the grocery store exit

with bouquets of paper poppies in one hand

and a donation can in the other.

I would tie mine to my purse handle...where it stayed until

it was just a 'stem'...

he would fix his to the breast pocket of his favorite jacket(s).

I went out this year

especially to search for the Vets with the Poppies...

I didn't get one last year

and I was really bothered by that.

It's one of those things I like to do in remembrance of

a 'tradition' I shared with my husband.