Day 144: My oldest daughter, her husband, and her little girl just began a summer internship in Washington D.C. What an amazing opportunity to experience Memorial Day among our many national monuments and memorials. With so much history to learn from each one, I hope they take the whole summer to explore each and make each part of their journey.
When this same daughter was in high school, my husband and I chaperoned her school choir trip to New York City. Amongst all the musical fun, we made a sobering stop at the 9/11 Memorial. The museum wasn’t yet complete, but the memorial was finished. It was quiet. I still remember the rushing of the water in the fountains. These young people needed an explanation, because they were too young to remember the tragedy. And even after explanations, it was difficult for them to fathom the loss.
They gathered into a circle on the sidewalk, facing inward, and began to sing an American camp song to each other - quietly - in remembrance.
Oh, I really do believe
That just before the end of time
We will hear the angels singing in that morning.
Rise, oh mothers rise, let’s go meet ‘em in the skies.
We will hear the angels singing in that morning.
No time to tarry here,
No time to wait for you,
No time to tarry here,
For I’m on my journey home.
A beautiful thing happened. The other visitors moved closer in order to hear. And then they moved closer, still. Others gathered. And for 8 minutes, those choir students made a memory - a living memorial of their own. Tears rushed. People quietly recorded the moment. I’ll never forget the feeling.
It was the same feeling I felt, several years later, when I returned with my youngest daughter and visited the finished museum. It was the feeling I felt as I stood in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. And at Pearl Harbor. At each of the monuments at the National Mall.
My hope is that we make these memorials a part of our journey. Pieces of our past. So that the people they memorialize will never be forgotten. There is no time to forget while we're on our journey home.
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