Tag: holiday

Mother’s Garden

I walk in the garden alone
But much of the beauty I see
Was planted there by my mother
Who is in Paradise waiting for me.

She lived in her garden day after day,
It was her greatest delight,
To take a walk at the close of the day
To bid all her flowers good night.

As she slowly walked down the path
She seemed to touch every plant
And I think they really did know
For everything that she planted
Would always flourish and grow.

She loved to have company
She was friend to all, it is true
But before they would leave
She would want to take a walk
thru the garden with you.

Now I walk in the garden alone
View the flowers she planted with care
No, I don’t walk in the garden alone
I feel that she walks with me there.

 — by Lena Gertrude Dixon Wiles, our grandmother

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

excerpted from
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land.

We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders.

Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from hishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation’s gratitude, the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.
Grave of Daniel Wiles, veteran of the Civil WarPlease thank the veterans in your life, today, for the sacrifices they have made.(Re-posting from Memorial Day 2009)