Help! Love, MOM

Memorial Day is a federal holiday dedicated to honoring and remembering the American military personnel who died while serving their country.

Honestly, my family was happily among the many for whom today was “just” a day off. We had no shared memory of honoring soldiers even though my dad had served honorably in the Korean War.

We typically and obliviously had a cookout.

It could be that our joyful cookout, was my dad’s way of forgetting the difficult but destiny-altering experiences leading up to his military service.

My dad joined the Army as a way to be fed, clothed, housed and employed. Period. He had been abandoned by his family in Oklahoma after his mother’s (my grandmother’s) death.

When My grandfather died he left behind a family of 7. Upon my grandmother’s death, relatives, unofficially, adopted the youngest 3. The oldest 2 kids, left the area: 1 married the other joined the military.

Then, there was my dad, the middle child.

When I think of it too hard, I weep for my daddy.

He was about 14 or 15 at the time and literally wandered the streets, homeless, and, in the evenings, was fed at the back door of his relative’s home.

School lunch was not a thing at the time, so, dad had no regular opportunities to eat during the day. He kept moving around to find food and shelter.

When as older adults the siblings finally reconnected, the younger ones told him, I was there, that they’d cried for him every night and begged their Aunt to let dad stay.

When the littles grew up, h the younger brother, especially, had been looking for him. But Uncle said that their relatives simply would not allow daddy to live with them.

While living on the streets of Oklahoma City, doing odd jobs here, begging there and eating a meal at the back door at his aunt’s home to survive someone advised Dad to try the military.

He lied to get in and his economic life and life trajectory shifted.

After his family’s cruelty, my father left Oklahoma not to return, or to talk about that sad story, for at least 40 years.

As I have become more, I don’t know exactly what to name it but let, “aware” suffice for now, appreciative, however surface-level it may be of the, indeed, burdens our military carry for us all.

In America, and in other countries, there are several national remembrances for soldiers:

• Memorial Day honors those who died in service.
• Veterans Day honors all who served (living and dead).
• Armed Forces Day honors those currently actively serving.

This poem is reproduced in total from The Atlantic, May 25, 2026. The author, William H. McRaven, is a retired Naval officer.

How have you chosen to honor a soldier this Memorial Day?

Blessings,

Kimberly

The Burden They Carry

Wheeling the old warriors
off the Honor Flight plane
with flags and banners,
people calling their names.

From Chosen to Kabul,
from Baghdad to Hue,
after all these years
today was their day.

Oh, the burden they carry,
I heard one woman say.
I wonder if our children
would serve today?

But not far off
another plane left,
with soldiers and sailors,
their solemn duty kept.

Nearby, a young wife,
two children at her side.
It’s the burden she carries
as the plane took flight.

And across the sea
in an ancient land,
a lowered steel ramp,
a song from a band.

A flag-draped coffin.
A fallen hero inside.
It’s the burden they carried,
and they carried it with pride.

Emptiness and sorrow,
pain and loss.
It’s the burden they carry.
The unbearable cost.

They swore an oath
to support and defend.
It’s the burden they carried
to the very end.

Wheeling the old warriors
off the Honor Flight plane
with flags and banners,
people calling their names.

From Fallujah to Khe Sanh,
from V-E to V-J,
after all these years
today was their day.

A young child waved
as the old men passed.
Home to a hero’s welcome.
Home at last.

It’s a burden they carry
for a day like today.
It’s a hallowed price
that they gladly pay.

But to those who carry
the greatest burden of all,
for their loved ones who never
came home—

May God be with you
and let you know,
you’ll never carry that burden
alone.