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Memorial Day

On Memorial Day I wear my Air Force baseball hat that identifies me as a Vietnam Veteran. I attend a local service sponsored by the VFW that has politicos giving speeches, a tenor singing the national anthem, and community members laying wreaths at the memorial. This year there will be no gathering at the VFW hall to reminisce and drink. Instead, I will drive to the Putnam Park where there is a statue to the Gold Star Mothers.

Those who were left behind to worry about a son or daughter’s safety prayed they would never have to answer a knock at the door or open a telegram to learn of their child’s death.

This monument depicts the sadness in the mother’s eyes as she leans against a table with a photograph and a last letter.

There is another letter on the base of the statue from Abraham Lincoln on 21 November 1864 written to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a five gold star mother. It reads:

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement from the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to serve. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only with the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

Putnam County is not alone in remembering their sacrifice. Westchester also has a monument to the Gold Star Mother in Lasdon Park –

I wondered if this were just a local act of remembrance or if other places had such a monument. Indeed, there is a Gold Star Families Memorial Monument. But it is not in one place. The ideas for such a monument started in West Virginia and has now expanded to 60 locations across the country with 70 more planned. The nearest one to me is in Lafayette Park in Albany.

Gold Star Families Memorial Monuments are a two-sided tribute made of black granite. One side bears the words: Gold Star Families Memorial Monument, a tribute to Gold Star Families and Relatives who sacrificed a Loved One for our Freedom.

The other side tells a story through the four granite panels: Homeland, Family, Patriot, and Sacrifice. The scenes on each panel reflect each community’s Gold Star Families and their fallen Heroes. At the center of this tribute is a silhouette of the Loved One who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the name of Freedom.

So, on this hallowed day while the band plays America the Beautiful or a trumpeter plays Taps, let us remember not only those who have given their lives for our country but their mothers as well.