Published May 28, 2022
| 1 Comment | Leave A ReplyAnother Memorial Day weekend is here.
Yes, I know it’s technically designated only to remember those who died while serving the U.S. military.
Without demeaning those instances of “the last full measure of devotion,” to use Abraham Lincoln’s words, I think many of us have informally expanded that designation and use the holiday as a chance to reflect on all the deceased, especially our direct-line ancestors who have passed on.
And I know for me, a part of Memorial Day is literal memories of it for me.
Like my mother putting together arrangements of red and white peonies in simple coffee cans wrapped in red, white and blue foil, all to be placed on the three cemeteries in which she and my dad had known ancestors (oh, my, how many more cemeteries I’ve added to that list!)
And, likewise, how she and I would climb the gentle rolling hillside on which the Bern Cemetery Company’s Historic Old Graveyard sets.
And when Valerie Gehr and I dug out the flat stone of our mutual ancestor Stephen Brecht from the encroaching forest at North Heidelberg United Church of Christ (originally a Moravian congregation).
Then there were the ceremonies when I was living in Jonestown, Lebanon County, that concluded that little burg’s bigger-than-itself Memorial Day parade … it was truly as if the collective wisdom of the borough assembled all at one place, complete with the high school band, a few convertibles, and keynote speaker and the resonance of taps played at the end.
And the time when I spent the weekend cleaning up some ancestor’s stones with the D/2 compound.
Bittersweet was the year when I went with extreme humility to my mentor John T. Humphrey’s grave near the Blue Mountain in Northampton County, to leave at his marker flowers and a copy of the book I dedicated to him. I had an experience with what some call “the thin places” in return!
A couple of times I went for Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey shore … but the biting blackflies left me with the impression that the shore was best left for further in season and that I should return to the graveyards instead!
I generally do have a hamburger or hot dog or two (and pass the baked beans!) but that’s always when the true work of acknowledging those who’ve passed on is completed.
And that includes what I did just last week in preparation: As a trustee of the Bern Cemetery Company, helped put new flags at all the veterans’ graves on that Historic Old Graveyard as well as the new cemetery.
Who and what will you have remembered when this weekend is done?
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The Best of "Roots & Branches", Fifth Edition published July 2017, edited by Terri J. Bridgwater.
It contains a selection of columns from Beidler’s award-winning newspaper column (currently published in the Altoona Mirror), which is the only syndicated newspaper column on genealogy in Pennsylvania.
The book can be ordered online, or purchased directly from Jim when he speaks at a conference.
Warren Wenger
2 years ago
Like you, I placed flowers on my parents, grandparents and an uncle who served in WWII as well as a cousin, Earl Wenger who was killed in WWII. The baseball field at the Fredericksburg Legion was named in his honor. The Jonestown observance is still going strong and I’ll be there on Monday.