Since this is Memorial Day weekend, I decided to set aside time to recognize some of the people I’ve loved who’ve passed on. Gone but not forgotten holds especially true for these fine individuals:

My parents: Albert and Irene
They were wonderful parents. My mother and I were best friends. She was a person with a lot of good friends….because she was a good friend in return. No matter what I did, I knew she would always support me. My father was a kind, gentle man who loved games and puzzles. When I was in high school, he was also the dad who could be counted on to take a car load of girls to out-of-town football games.

My father-in-law: Roger
Roger was a great guy. Intelligent and well educated he never met a person he didn’t like. He had a talent for drawing and loved to do impromptu sketches of people (which they always insisted on taking with them) I started dating his son in high school and he was the one who encouraged me to go to college. I ended up being the first one in my family to graduate from college.

My aunt: Orleatha
She just passed away last month. My mother came from a family of eight but I was closest to “Lee.” She was a woman who always looked on the bright side of things. She loved to laugh.

How about you? Who will you be remembering this Memorial Day? Or do you have someone in the military protecting our freedom who needs to be remembered this weekend?