‘Well it is finally here, Memorial Day and the opening of Pounds Hollow,’ said Jane with exuberance!

‘I have thought about it since Christmas and of little else,’ Chet remarked. ‘Mom and I left a wreath at the graveside of my Dad who died in World War II,’ he continued. There was a Memorial Day Remembrance at the cemetery and the bugler played taps and I got tears in my eyes,’ Chet said with a downcast gaze.

‘Uncle Dutch Neva J’s brother went missing in WWII and Grandma A gathers the family each year to share stories of him,’ Billy B said.

‘Freedom is not free,’ Neva J said. ‘Many live to be old and never see danger while others are cut down in the prime of life before they have even started their journey, she remarked.

‘I noticed that most of our little Southern Illinois towns and villages have a stone monument erected to the fallen in war,’ Chet said. ‘Every name represents a person who was once alive and seeking all of the possibilities that life had to offer them,’ he continued. ‘They left suddenly wives and husbands sisters and brothers and children behind to live the majority of their hoped-for life without them,’ he said.

‘Perhaps we should not go out of respect for the fallen,’ Jane said.

‘I think that we must live our lives of freedom that they paid the ultimate price for, if they were with us they would be at the beach for a picnic and a cool dip in the lovely waters and playing with their kids and loving the air that they were able to breathe,’ Neva J said with dignity.

‘Perhaps Uncle Dutch and Chet’s Dad and many other family members of those at Pounds Hollow today will roll out their beach towels and watch their family and friends enjoy what they purchased for them,’ Billy B said…