Why I Observe Memorial Day

This is a repeat post from several years ago.it is still relevant. 

Today, we observe Memorial Day. The holiday began three years after the Civil War in 1868 as Decoration Day, a time set aside to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. The date of May 30 probably was selected because flowers would be in bloom across the country in the late spring.

The first large observance was held at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremonies began on the veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, attended. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the Grand Army of the Republic strewed flowers on both Union and Confederate graves as they recited prayers and sang hymns.

By the turn of the twentieth century, ceremonies were held on May 30 throughout the country. After World War I, the day was expanded to honor those who died in all American wars. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday. The date was also changed to the last Monday in May.

So, what does this mean for us?

Some communities hold parades. Local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts place flags on the graves of veterans in cemeteries. Many cities and communities sponsor concerts and fireworks displays. And some families visit the graves of their relatives and friends.

Both my my father and father-in love served in WWII. Fortunately, neither of them was killed, but they gave years of their lives to the service of their country.

One family member, my grandfather’s brother, Charles Methven, died on October 20, 1917 in Ieper, Belgium during WWI. The family then lived in Canada, and Charles served for Great Britain. He was buried in West Flanders, Belgium near where he fell. He was twenty-three years old.

When I hear Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s poem and see the poppies on Memorial Day, I think of Uncle Charles. The poem was written in the same place where Charles died.

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.

This year, I will once again remember those, including Charles, who went to war when their country called and who never came home.

This holiday will continue to focus our attention on those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we can enjoy the freedoms we sometimes take for granted. They deserve our eternal gratitude and respect.

ABOUT A BIRD

Luanna Rugh is a close friend. I have edited several of her books. In addition, she participated in all six of the Aspen Grove Romance Anthologies.

Luanna’s stories nearly always include animals—usually dogs. Quite a while ago, she began a story with a scarlet macaw as a principal character. Other projects prevented her from finishing it, but I always loved it—especially the opening.

Up in Flames is a romance with lots of complications.

“Nine—one—one. What is the nature of your emergency?” “Our bird’s stuck in a tall tree.” “Young man, this number is for human emergencies only.” “It is. Honest, lady. My mom was trying to get our macaw down. Now her foot is caught and she’s stuck in the tree, too. I didn’t know what else to do.”

A young widow with a son in a new town, a bird stuck in a tree, an unsympathetic fire captain—how can this lead to romance? Lyanna Thomas and her son, Davey, have moved to Aspen Grove Colorado following her husband’s death. When their macaw, Scarlet, decides to go adventuring, a whole new world opens up for the family.

When our writing group had to stop meeting due to the pandemic, I encouraged Luanna to finish the book, and I did the final edit and formatting.

Larry designed the cover. 

Luanna knows all about macaws and parrots because she has one herself. She totally conveys their behavior. Scarlet is definitely a pivotal character in the book.

If you enjoy romance with a sense of humor, you will love this book.

LUANNA RUGH was born and raised on a dairy in Central California. She always loved animals, cats and dogs, cows and horses, not to mention the many wild animals living in the area. At ten, she decided she wanted to become a high school biology teacher.

Her family moved to Southern California the year she entered high school. Luanna followed her path in college until the summer of 1966. She worked at a local restaurant where she met the love of her life, Len Rugh. They were married in February of 1967. A year and a half later, Len was drafted and sent to Vietnam where he was critically wounded, but that’s another story.

When Len returned to California, she finished school and earned two teaching credentials in 1984.

At age fifty-seven, she discovered she could write when she co-authored the first of the six books in the Aspen Grove Romance Anthologies. She contributed to all six of them.

After she and Len published their award-winning memoir, Promises Kept: How One Couple’s Love Survived Vietnam, she decided to stretch her wings, and write on her own. She loves writing animals as supporting characters. In Love From the Sea, a dog plays a major role. In Up in Flames, another dog and a scarlet macaw are lead characters.

Her books are available in paperback and Kindle editions. Most are also available as audiobooks.

She hopes you enjoy reading them as much as she loved writing them.

A TALE OF TWO CULTURES

I met Carol Van Kirk at church. When she discovered we were authors, she said she had been working on a book for years. I invited her to join Lagunita Writers, our critique group.

She brought chapters of her book, and everyone looked forward to learning more of her story each week. Her writing was outstanding, and she had a compelling story to tell.

Then came the pandemic…

The group stopped meeting, and the majority did not want to continue via Zoom.

I knew Carol was anxious to get her book finished and published. I called her, and we worked on the edit together. When it was ready, she published it.

Her husband, Nick, a graphic artist, produced an amazing cover.

The Yellow Lizard: A Tale of Two Cultures is Carol’s memoir. Written with contributions from her daughter, Allison Langbridge, Carol tells the bittersweet, and often funny, story of sharing the raising of her children between Southern California and Tahiti.

As a recently divorced mom of two teenagers, Carol agreed to paternal visitation rights of every other weekend and a month in the summer for her children. Soon after the marital dust settled, however, Dad moved to the remote island of Moorea in French Polynesia, aka Tahiti.

Thus began summers in Tahiti for these two over-indulged kids. Eventually, Allison graduated from school and settled into a conventional job and lifestyle in California. Her brother Alec, however, fell in love with and married a local vahine, Anne. This bicultural couple launched a vagabond lifestyle between an Island Paradise in the South Pacific and staid Orange County, California, filled with adventures, mostly comical and implausible. When two children arrived, however, they settled into a house in Opunohu Bay on Moorea. Subsequently, Grandma Carol became a regular visitor on this island that many people, including James Michener, have referred to as the most beautiful island in the South Pacific. Over the years, she became familiar with the Tahitian traditions and superstitions, some she embraced, others she found amusing, absurd, and sometimes downright scary.

But when tragedy struck, it was the Tahitians, not her American friends, who brought peace and comfort with their close spiritual connections to nature. Who then, she wonders, are the unsophisticated primitives?

The book includes many photos. I created a video trailer for it (something I rarely do for books I edit).

The book is available on Amazon in print and Kindle versions. I’m sure you will enjoy reading about her adventures in Paradise.

CAROL VAN KIRK is a technical writer and editor, who has written for various publications including alternative healthcare periodicals, trade journals and technical manuals, training manuals and online computer Help systems. She was copy editor three years for the magazine Yerevan, which was circulated internationally.

The Yellow Lizard was written as a project to share her family’s unusual background and history with the younger generation, but it soon grew into a full-fledged memoir. She is currently at work on a book of myths and legends of the Maohi Tahitians. Carol currently lives in southern California with her daughter and great-grandson.

A MOTHER’S HEART

Another book I loved working on was It’s Amazing – She Looks Just Like You: The Story of Sophia and Me, by Dawn Mauro with Carol Ann Mauro.

Dawn always wanted to be a mother, but the husband/partner in the equation never appeared. She tried all the options here in America to become a single parent, but for one reason or another, they did not work out.

By what can only be described as divine intervention, she was led to All God’s Children International (AGCI) in Nepal. She recounts the arduous journey of application, multiple forms, and other requirements—and lots of waiting, expense, and red tape—before she was finally approved for adoption.

So, she and her mother, Carol, set off for Kathmandu, and the adventure of a lifetime. Her determination was tried many times, but she felt God had led her to this place and this orphanage—and this child.

Carol contributes her memories to the book, adding a special dimension. The love of these two women, provided the foundation for the love of this precious child.

In editing the book, I got to know both Carol and Dawn. Their deep love of the orphans of Nepal transcends Sophia’s adoption. Carol; has become a major supporter of the orphanage and is now known as the “godmother” of the children there.

I so loved all the beautiful photos Dawn included in the book that I prepared a video trailer for it. (This is something I rarely do for the books I edit.) 

Their story is a triumph of hope and love. It is inspiring and will leave you with tears of joy. It’s a feel-good read you will truly enjoy.

Sophia just became a teenager, but she continues to inspire. She recently shaved off her long hair in order to make wigs for kids with cancer. You will not regret getting to know this inspiring family.

ON THE WINGS OF FREEDOM

 I recently wrote about my ancestor, William Blackwood, who was a publisher and editor. In the last few years, I have done more editing and publishing than writing. I love helping others achieve their dreams of being published authors. In the next few weeks, I will share with you some of the wonderful books I have been privileged to work on. (I help the writers I work with to self-publish their books so they have total control over them.)

One of these books is On the Wings of Freedom.

I was recommended to first-time author Malanna Carey Henderson as an editor. (These days, most of my editing is done for people on the recommendation of others.)

The book contained a McGuffin—a bird in flight carved out of bone. (McGuffin is a term coined by Alfred Hitchcock for an object that serves as a trigger for the plot. Think of the blackbird statue in The Maltese Falcon.) Strangely, I had one! My dad had sent it to my mom when he was in the service in WWII. It had a letter in its mouth, but Larry assured me he could remove it digitally.

This felt like a sign that I should work on this book. I also liked the theme and plot.

Because we write historical fiction, I was well-aware that readers of the genre will destroy an author in reviews if they get anything wrong. Unfortunately, I discovered quite a few things in this manuscript that were inconsistent for the period. Thank goodness, Malanna was willing to do the necessary research—and rewriting—to make it correct.

During the writing process, I mentioned the carved bird to my daughter. “I have one, too,” she responded.

Shortly afterward, we went to visit her, and she showed it to me. It had been with my mother-in-love’s jewelry. Neither she nor I nor Larry knew whose it was originally. I really loved this one. It was in full flight and precisely the image Malanna had described.

Larry liked it, too and used it for the cover.

When the book was published, my daughter said I could send the original bird to Melanna to be used for whatever purpose she chose. Mine will go to my daughter, and she will know the story behind it.

This is the synopsis of the story:

Born free in New York City, Carrie Bennet is unprepared to hear the family secrets her ailing mother, Sarah, reveals. An educated woman who has led a sheltered life, Carrie travels south to fulfill her mother’s dying wish―to free her grandmother from slavery. Circumstances set her on a perilous path that jeopardizes her freedom and leads to a charge of murder. Fearing she’d never get a fair trial, Carrie travels north on the Underground Railroad and joins Harriet Tubman. As her life hangs in the balance, Carrie fights an unjust judicial system as she struggles to deny a forbidden love.

Malanna Carey Henderson has written and produced ten plays which have been performed in Brooklyn, New York; Culpeper and Fredericksburg, Virginia. For the past two years, she has worked with members of the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield, Shiloh Baptist New Site, the United Methodist Church, and St. George’s Episcopal Church to produce vignettes under the title: Untold Stories. These vignettes focused on little-known historical events featuring the contributions of African Americans as spies and military heroes to celebrate Black History Month. The one-act plays included To His Excellency George Washington, Camp Casey, It Was a Matter of Pride, Democracy is a Weapon, Secret Codes and The Pension Office.

In 2009, she won first place in the One-Act Play Festival sponsored by Stage Door Productions for The Eclipse. She won a first-place award sponsored by the Tulsa City County Library for A Question of Color.

A native Detroiter, she earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from City University of New York, Brooklyn Campus and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Detroit.

On the Wings of Freedom is her first novel. She lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with her wonderfully supportive husband.

Malanna as a Civil War reenactor

I hope you will give the book a try. I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as I have!

I will continue to share some of the wonderful, but little-known, books I have been privileged to have worked on.