Memorial Day
On a warm and sunny Memorial Day in the late 1990's, before 9/11, I took a walk on Farm Island on the Missouri River with my three sons who were in elementary school at that time. We came upon a little meadow filled with Dame's Rocket.
I did not know then what this fragrant, radiant purple flower was called. The first thing that came to mind was the poppies of Flanders field. I knew this flower was not a poppy of course, but in lieu of its proper name I started thinking of it as the Memorial Day flower. To me, it became a visual reminder of those who had died in service to the country.
I also did not know then how world events would unfold and that two of my sons would go to war one day. Both made it home but one had a friend and a brother in arms who did not. Baker was killed in October of 2009, a few short weeks before the battalion was due to rotate home.
I intended to return to that field in May 2011 and think of him. But I could not. Unusually high snow pack and a freak spring rain event resulted in flooding along the Missouri River just a few days before Memorial Day. Farm Island was inundated with three, four feet of water in places.
When the waters receded in the fall the trail to Baker's Field was gone, some of it washed away, some covered in debris and detritus. I have been out a few times looking for that field to no avail. Since I did not have it geo-located, it remains lost.
But I have not lost Baker's memory. Whenever I see a Dame's Rocket I think of him and all the men and women that have died. I think too of their families.
Rest in Peace. Be at peace,. You are not forgotten.
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