A Memorial Day Story

Week of May 26, 2014

When Joy's dad died she requested a military funeral to honor the World War II veteran.
At the grave site she received a folded America flag. When she inquired about a small flag
in front of the stone marking his grave the funeral director said you's have to ask the grounds
crew about that. They said the local boys scouts placed the flags on Memorial Day.The scouts
told her they get the flags from the Department of Defense and the appropriate holders. The
scouts just replace the flags each Memorial Day.

We went to a local hardware store and purchased a small American flag on a stick and stuck
it in the ground in front of the grave stone. Joy asked, "How are we going to get a WWII flag
holder? Do we have to write DOD?"

I shook my head as we walked back to our van parked on a road nearby.As I was getting in the drivers side I stepped on something hard next to the left front tire. It was covered with dust from the road. It was a WWII graveside flag holder. Go Figure. There was no grave nearby containing a WWII veteran.

We went back to her dad's grave and placed the flag in the holder marking his resting place.

Now every Memorial Day the scouts place a new flag in front of that grave site.

In memory of Walter Holloway...
.Holyoke, Ma.