Catching Up

It took 20+ years but we finally laid my parents to rest, and maybe not surprisingly that has brought me so much peace.

My mom died and my dad kept her cremains on the mantel. And then my dad died. And he had already made arrangements via the Neptune society. And he most specifically did not want any services. So we followed his wishes. But then we needed to decided what to do with the cremains of both my parents.

But there were not veteran's cemeteries close by.  The closest one was out in the valley.....so I thot about scattering ashes but where? On the golf course? In Hawaii? Nothing felt right.

We went to the Monterey County Fair and there was a booth talking about all the things they were hoping to do with the closure of Fort Ord and one of the things was a veteran's cemetery. But it was just in the "thought" process. And somehow we knew this was going to be the right thing. And we started following the info about it but it was going so slowly.....

And to be honest, we forgot about it. Then last year the father of an old friend of hubby's died and we went to the services out at the San Joaquin National Veteran's Cemetery. While there (we were early) we walked around and someone asked if we had any questions. So hubby thot to ask about Fort Ord and they told us it was opening in October and they gave us contact information. So got home and emailed and the ball was rolling! Heck it was racing!

What took the longest was trying to find a date which worked the best for me, hubby, and all the kids!

And so they were finally laid to rest on a most beautiful sunny day in May - a perfect golf day!

 Did not even notice till my son pointed it out - that I got a reflection of the flag on the glass of the case of my dad's medals

 Beautiful pavilion for the ceremony

 21 gun salute - and of course the playing of Taps which always, and it did, does me in. At the end the Legion presented me with 3 shell casings, one from each volley. Each of the girls got one and the 3d I am going to put either in the case with my dad's medals (which my son has) or with one of the flags which were presented to me

 I got up and thanked everyone for coming - very difficult cause this was after the playing of Taps - then my oldest daughter had something to say - loved how casual the ceremony was that people were comfortable in responding to what was said - and then two of my grandsons got up too and said something - not only very touching but they both made us all laugh which I know my parents would have loved!

After placing the cremains in the niches - and yes, my parents got side by side niches since they were both veterans - and then we got to place some momentos in there. Gave each of the kids and all the grandkids something to put in there and what I regret is that I forgot to get a photo of all that was put in there - the grandkids made sure they were placed in there very decoratively! They will notify us when the engraved plaques are placed on the niches and then I will get photos of those too

 There were two flags - two ceremonies of folding them and presenting them to me.....

Because we dont live down there (yet!) we had no home to invite people to for an after ceremony get together -  plus we needed to find some place close that could handle a large table - so we hosted lunch at Black Bear Diner afterwards - it was fun