Memorial Day 2026

 Good morning!

 It was a pleasant Memorial Day weekend overall for the Plank family this year.  In addition to the traditional placing of flowers and plants on the graves of loved ones, remembering them as we did so, we also gathered together on Saturday afternoon to celebrate Gabe’s graduation from high school.  There was good conversation and not a small amount of food at Scott & Laura’s.  They can put on a pretty good scene at times.

Then that evening we all gathered for a hot-dog roast at our place.  The kids played outside and in the park behind us, and us old folks mostly sat and visited, catching up on times past as well as looking ahead to the future.  We especially enjoyed watching the smaller kids manage to cook hot dogs and marshmallows over the open fire, and Zach kept the fire pit stoked with lumber from time to time as the evening got cooler.

Sunday was the normal worship services, with a moment of silence to remember those who had gone before, and especially those who gave their lives in service.  Sunday evening some of us went to Sterling to swim and indulge in homemade ice cream at one of Pat’s relatives.  This gathering at Bob and Lynn’s is quickly becoming a tradition…one that the kids especially like, as the pool is heated and there’s a slide as well.

And Monday we helped Laura clean up the graduation stuff, taking the borrowed tables and chairs back to where they came from.  That afternoon, we went to Harper to pick up the flowers and plants at the cemetery.

Monday evening, we were called regarding Pat’s sister-in-law, who was in hospice care.  She had taken a turn for the worse, and we went to be with her and with Pat’s brother.  We stayed for awhile and visited with others in the family.  Becky passed away about 1am the following morning.  Services will be held Saturday.

It’s been a full weekend.

Becky had been admitted to Hospice House, an inpatient facility in Hutchinson.  It’s visually similar to a small hospital in many ways, but has an entirely different purpose.  The layout of the facility is geared to families and those who are visiting loved ones.  Those who work there have a special heart for the work, and care for the families as much as they do the patient.  At Hospice House, there’s no such thing as a nurse that is too busy to stop and visit for a few minutes.  There are no loud noises, clanking of medical machinery, or noisy carts going down halls.  There’s no, “We don’t allow that here.”

Yes, there are indeed rules.  But there is also compassion and a true desire to serve…at least on the part of those I encountered there.  I don’t know who the nurse is who was assigned to Becky.  But I do know from my experiences in health care and Pat’s work in hospice in the past that this woman knew exactly what she was doing.  She knew exactly what we were thinking.  And she knew exactly what to say, how & when to say it, what to do, and how & when to do it.  If ever I saw a health care provider who combined the art of medicine with the equally important art of compassion and care, it was her.  And I’m speculating that everyone else who works there is equally compassionate, caring, and professional.

So, looking ahead because of Becky’s passing, I see family gatherings, a memorial service, some travel, and a lot of visiting.  As an In-law, even though we consider ourselves all family, I pretty much stay on the sidelines unless invited or asked.  It’s the only appropriate thing to do.  Anything else would be inserting myself into a place where I shouldn’t be.

Going to a cemetery where loved ones are buried can be an humbling and yes, even emotional experience.  The one we go to for the Plank family…the church of my childhood’s cemetery…has both relatives and friends of mine.  Aunts, grandparents, parents, uncles, shirt tail cousins, and friends are there.  People I’ve known, especially in my young days in the church are there.  And those friends of mine who are there…many of those friends were my age or even younger when they passed.

There are some in that church cemetery I don’t know.  And there are some there who were very young…infants and small children who possibly had been caught up in some epidemic of some kind in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  It is good, I think, to just walk the rows of stones and remember again that person whose remains are a few feet underground.

I also remember having to mow the cemetery as a boy.  Although it’s only three or so miles out of town, it felt like the middle of nowhere in the summer heat for a boy of 10 or 11 years old.  There was no water, no phone, no buildings, and no shade.  I had an 18 inch mower, and my older brother, who mowed with me, had a 20 inch mower.  We didn’t cut a very wide swath.  It took most of a half day to get it all cut.  The stones at that time had no concrete base, so we had to trim around the stones with hand trimmers once we were finished mowing.

I’m not complaining.  Although I didn’t enjoy the work then, I know now it “built character,” as my Dad would say, and as I now say to my grand kids from time to time.

 

Thanks for listening.  I trust your next days will be fruitful and pleasant.

 

Blessings.