Memorial Day

Decoration Day.  That's what my great grandma, Lena Mae Ketchum Slocter called today.  She decorated graves on Memorial Day.  Meaning she took flowers and placed them around the tombstones of loved ones she'd lost.

My mind goes to thoughts of her today.  No, she wasn't a veteran.  She did send a son to war.  Thankfully, he returned.  She lived through the Vietnam era and I'm certain prayed prayers to keep my National Guard enlisted father (her first born grandchild) in the US.  Thankfully, he never was deployed overseas.  She was one half Delaware Indian.  Her paternal great grandpa's name was Ta We Lah Len.  She was a descendant on her mother's side of Abraham Pitsenbarger.  He was a German immigrant who served in the Revolutionary Army.  She married Ernie, the son of German immigrant, Raymond Slocter, who actually returned to Germany after his wife died.  So I guess my great grandma was a true American, as in she had both the native and immigrant covered.

Why do I dwell on her today and not my mother's father who received a Purple Heart in WWII?  Well, thoughts of Lena Mae are much more pleasant.  Though my maternal grandfather returned whole physically after being shot in combat in Europe, he wasn't exactly a hero to my mom and grandma.  But that's a story for another day. . . . . .

Today I choose to remember one of my favorite people.  I'm too far away to visit her grave.  So I'll remember her with a song I know she liked.  Hopefully you can hear it.