A Memorial Day Tribute

The rest of the story ....

Wednesday past I published “Preparations and Reflection for Memorial Day.” It has borne fruit.

In that last article, I deplored the lack of attention to my fallen soldier’s gravesite when I visited it on Memorial Day in 2018. Among other things, I encouraged any readers who live near Asheville, NC, to visit Garney Burleson’s gravesite to consider visiting his grave and perhaps leaving some flowers or other preferred symbol of respect.

Some readers may wonder if anyone followed through on that request. They did.

At 1:30 this afternoon I received the above photo from an old friend, Jim Moore. Jim is a lawyer in Knoxville with whom I used to occasionally cross swords. After reading my article, despite the less-than-perfect weather, Jim rode his motorcycle 100+ miles to the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Cemetery and placed the two flags on either side of Garney’s gravestone.

A short time later I received an email from another lawyer friend, Steve Gannon, from Richmond, who advised me that he had ordered the bouquet of flowers with the other flag from an Asheville florist. As you can see the florist didn’t scrimp and did a bang-up job in fulfilling Steve’s order.

Neither Jim nor Steve ever knew Garney Burleson. All they know about him is what I have written. It is all too easy for “old soldiers” such as me to get nostalgic and choked up with the memories of those who served with us, especially — most especially — those who never returned home. But when strangers such as these patriots take such actions to keep his memory alive, it gives us continued inspiration and hope.

This Country is filled with such patriots, and I thank Jim and Steve for reminding us of that.

Post-script added on Tuesday, May 27 — I received an email today that two more friends and former neighbors, Jim and Martha Barnett drove from their home in Gatlinburg, Tennessee across the mountains to the Pleasant Grove Cemetery to honor Garney. They sent this photo showing the additional flowers they left.

I love all you guys.