A Grateful Nation

On behalf of the President of the United States and the people of a grateful nation, may I present this flag as a token of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service your loved one rendered this nation.

I think that's what was said to Amity, the daughter of my cousin Duane, who died of lung cancer but was a Vietnam Vet and so had full military honors today at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland. His brother, Gary, who died of a heart attack last fall was also honored as he was in the Navy and the two brother's cremated remains will be interred along side each other. And I gotta say, this was so interesting. It was a beautiful and moving tribute and it was something new for me to see. I've been to one other service for a WWII vet, and it was well attended and it was harder for me to see all that went on, but this one, with the Vietnam era vets, was something else again. We followed the family cars which was led by the Vietnam Patrol Guard Rider's on their motorcycles with flags flying behind them on their cycles. I'd never seen that before. Since this was a double ceremony, there were two flags given to Duane's daughter, as my cousin Gary had never married. She was presented with flags, the casings from the gun salute, and something else from the Vietnam guys. They all took turns coming to her, kneeling before her, handing something to her, then saluting...it was very touching. I took pictures and it was so quiet that I was uncomfortable with my noisy camera, but the lady next to me, a good friend of their family was snapping away like crazy. I will put some of my photos on Flickr, if you want to see what that looked like. I have to go and load them and come back. Hang on a sec. ;) I'm back, see 15 photos here.

I'm glad I went as there was only one other cousin from our side of the family that was there. This is my dad's brother's boys, and their last name was Ellison. They were the only cousins that were able to pass along the Ellison name and neither had biological children of their own. Amity is Duane's adopted daughter, whom he totally adored. And she adored him. She is expecting another child, a boy, and she is going to name him Clayton Ellison and then whatever her last name is...I don't think I even know her married name. I'd never met her before. But that touched my heart to know that our family name will be carried on.

Anyway, so that's what today was like. I wanted to share this.

Take care.

PS. The state suspended the license of the company that sprayed trees last week and killed hundreds of bees. GOOD!!!!!! I mentioned this yesterday...