It is Memorial Day. I'm sitting here watching the Today Show which I almost never do because Nicki Bunting had posted on Facebook about a story they would be showing. Indeed, it was a very nice piece on The American Widow Project--if you are reading this today, May 30, 2011, before 8 a.m. your time, tune in! There have been other wonderful Memorial Day stories too.

The rest of this Memorial Day will be taken with going to Mass this morning at 10 at the cemetery where Thomas is buried, and then this afternoon having a barbeque with family and friends. Memorial Day started as Decoration Day: families would picnic among the gravestones on Day, having decorated the graves of the soldiers. No sales for us today, though Thomas was a big believer in retail therapy. A lot of my Facebook friends have been a bit cranky about all of the sales this weekend and the emphasis on food, but I think it's OK. I've also seen a lot of acknowledgement of what this weekend is really about in the midst of the sales and picnics.

So, no, it is not a happy Memorial Day, but it can be a good one, remembering our beloved fallen, and celebrating their lives.

It will be Memorial Day this weekend. It's going to be hot. I would like to go to the outdoor Mass at Gate of Heaven but we will not be able to take Richard's mom this year--she's just gotten too frail. We will have a barbeque in the afternoon, mostly in air-conditioned comfort I am sure!

I took Kolbe the Golden Retriever for his walk around noon today and saw a car parked outside the entrance to the park with Iraq and Afghanistan stickers (and a service branch sticker I couldn't see). Entering the park, I could see a woman wearing Army shorts and t-shirt walking her dog up the hill and realized I knew them (slightly)--Nugget the dog and Kolbe have bonded in the past. I asked Nugget's owner if the car was hers which indeed it was. And then I told her about Thomas. Sometimes that's kind of a heavy burden to lay on someone, but she seemed able to deal with it. We talked about his service, about where he'd been and what he was doing when killed, about how it must have been instantaneous really.

Nugget's owner (we never did exchange our own names, just the dogs' and Thomas's) is on her way to retirement. Thank you for your service, and thank you to all of the servicemembers, past and present who read this.

Louise Penny has asked me to write another blog entry--I am happy to do it because, selfishly, I know I'll get a much bigger audience than I will anywhere else! It is at www.louisepenny.blogspot.com on May 5, 2011 and it is a reflection on how I feel about Osama bin Laden's violent death.