I stood at the marker where one of my heroes, Stonewall Jackson, was shot - time did not allow me to visit his “shrine” in Guinea, Virginia. I climbed with my children Lee Hill where Robert E. Throughout the day I visited battlegrounds of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and the Wilderness Battle. It was a big “to do,” and it meant a lot that I happened to be there. We then walked the very long walk around the park back to our car.įrom there I drove to Fredericksburg, Virginia and stayed the night.Īnd as Providence would have it - I had no idea of the dates - I found myself at the Courthouse in Spotsylvania on the 150th anniversary of the commencement of the Battle of the Spotsylvania Courthouse. We sat long, then, at the WWII memorial until about everyone else had left, admiring the lighted fountains, the Capitol Dome and Washington Monument lit up in the background. A feeling of unity and peace filled the air. Because it was VE Day, there was an enormous crowd, yet I found it very touching climbing the steps to the Lincoln Memorial with thousands of people surrounding me. Moina wore the red poppy as a memorial of fallen soldiers, and thus began the tradition.Īfter Arlington Cemetery I drove to visit the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Wall and the WW II Memorial. In 1918 Moina Michael, inspired by the poem, wrote one of her own, “We Shall Keep the Faith:” The poem begins: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow/ Between the crosses row on row.” In 1915 Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, having noticed how quickly poppies grew near the graves of soldiers, penned the poem “In Flanders Field” in the back of an ambulance the day after presiding over the funeral for his friend and fellow soldier, Alex Helmer. I did not realize, however the touching history of why we wear the red poppy.
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I remember well purchasing red silk poppies as a young schoolgirl and donning the lovely bloom. It is customary on Memorial Day to wear Red Poppies. His red color, I told the children, reminded me of the blood our soldiers have shed for the price of freedom and the red in our flag which symbolizes hardiness and valor. Quietly exiting the grounds, walking with the three boys I had taken on this trip with me, I noticed and stopped to observe a red cardinal perching in a tree. I had also visited Arlington Cemetery that day, respectfully watching the day’s final changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as the sun slowly descended toward the horizon. As providence would have it on May 8, 2014, VE Day, I found myself at the WW II Memorial in Washington, D.C.