This day is really about memorializing the past. It is a day of remembrance, of reflection, and of reconciliation. And it is a day for all of us to think upon the lessons from the past in order to make a more perfect union in the future.
Stories
I will be cutting some lilacs from around the house and placing them on the graves of my family. All of my current family, and our friends who are visiting, will be going with us to the old cemetery. And I will tell stories about those that have gone before us.
100 Years
This tradition started with my grandmother taking my father up to the graves in the early 1900s. No one knows exactly when. So it might be a tradition that is 100 years old.
Be Here Now
I will try to help describe what our family has lived. I will try to add humor and I will try to add important details. But always I think about when I was young and my Dad was leading this trip, how the trip with him was what was most important.
A More Perfect Union
Because this is one way we make family, is to remember family. We make family by sharing the stories of our lives. We make family be remembering the stories they told, the way they saw life, and the hopes and dreams they had for themselves and others. I will lead this flower placing trip and do my best to create and celebrate, to dream and hope, for a more perfect union of our family and our country.
