Since it is not granted to us to live long, let us transmit to posterity some memorial that we have at least lived.
— E. Joseph Cossman
We had attended our local Memorial Day Celebration at Soldiers Field a couple of times before. Now that I’ve gotten to know myself better as a photographer, I was looking forward to this year’s celebration.
I googled and found the celebration was on May 27. How could it be? Memorial Day is May 29! I checked again and again. Sure enough, it said May 27. Maybe we decided to celebrate a couple of days earlier because of the weather forecast? (This is Minnesota after all!) It must be!
So, Wei and I packed our cameras and drove to Soldiers Field. No one was there!
Have you ever had the feeling that you might not know who you really were? Am I alive and living in this world? I quietly took out the paper I’d printed. It said May 27, but it said 2013. ;-(
I had put a lot of trust (expectation?) in Google that it would display the most current information first and, apparently, I was wrong. And how stupid I was that, again and again, I stopped reading right after I saw the date, before seeing the year?
My conclusion: blind trust is dangerous.
However, it turned out to be a good photographing day. Since only a few people were there, I had plenty of time visualizing each picture before pressing the shutter release button.
Then, suddenly, I felt like to cry. I don’t know anyone whose name was on the wall, but we, somehow, were able to connect.
I remembered David, one fallen soldier’s father, told me that holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas…) were difficult. Every morning during holidays, his son usually was the first one walking into the kitchen, asking “Is coffee ready, Dad?”
Some gave all. Don’t let the memory of them drift away.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
HHC Blog 
RIP
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Thanks, GP. We went to Fort Snelling National Cemetery to pay our respect today. Not forgetting them seems the best thing we can do now. Yes?
I have a question on a different subject.How do you post a photo in your comment? I couldn’t figure out…
Have a good evening.
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Remembering them is all we can do for them, yes. Showing respect by thanking one of their fellow veterans that is still with us is another.
Every one of your pictures in the gallery is given an address, just as your posts do. That https:// address is copied and that is what I leave behind for you and your see the photo. Pierre had to teach me that – along with so much more! [I’m basically computer illiterate! haha]
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Thank you so much for the tip.
Wish there is more we could do. I am thinking of visiting a Veteran office asking if any of them care for free photos. Do you think it is a good idea?
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I think it’s an excellent idea!!
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Thanks.
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Your photos brought me to tears…
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Amy, seeing so many names carved on the wall always gets me. Not forgetting them is the least we can do… Thanks.
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Thank you for the post, Helen.
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I liked this story a lot, Helen–the wrong date, showing up, photographing, connecting. And the story of David says everything. Beautiful post~~
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Good morning, Jet. David was very kind to reply my email (we didn’t know each other) and we had communicated more than 2 years. Then it came to the time for all of us to move on… with fond memories and great respect of his son.
Have a wonderful day.
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As a veteran, there are different memories. Yet one event drove it home to me. Some decades ago I passed a small protest gathering, an anti military one. It suddenly hit me, she could do this because I and others had put our lives on the line (some of my friends gave their lives) to preserve the liberty that allowed her to protest. Here she was doing that: without being imprisoned, tortured or mowed down by machine gun fire. She didn’t have the remotest clue as I smiled at her and continued to where I was going.
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Good morning, Ted. Thanks for taking time to comment. I’ll be honest with you, there are a lot of things happening in this world that I couldn’t comprehend. Someone once said to me, “One can not enlighten the unconsciousness.” Whenever I get very confused, I said to myself, “Apparently, one of us is unconscious, and I hope it’s not me.”
I applaud you for being able to smile at that woman.
Have a wonderful day.
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Ted, there is no way to subscribe your blog so it will deliver to my inbox?
Thanks.
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Hi Helen, I write my own blog software. I’ve have been trying to get a subscription service to work for a while to no avail.Hope to get it licked soon.
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That statue is heartbrakingly beautiful, Helen. You’ve captured it wonderfully. And about that trusting Google thing: too true! But I have to admit that I giggled a bit when reading 😉
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Thank you, Miss Gentileschi. It is a beautiful statue. I stared at it for a long time on that day.
I am glad you understood what I said about Google. I was totally surprised, but that’s okay. I learned not to trust them too much 😉
Have a wonderful day.
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I would have done the same, Helen! Statues like these are an inspiration!
Have a wonderful day too! Sarah 🙂
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