Happy Memorial Day 2020. This is probably the strangest one I’ll ever live through. My family’s tradition for Memorial Day Weekend was that my mom insisted everyone come to the cabin in Canada. We were sleeping on beds, couches, floors, in tents and hammocks! Everyone came and often everyone brought more friends! Mom was delighted in the chaos. Pancake, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage breakfasts, fish fries, campfires and lots of s’mores. These are memories that will live on in all my senses. Dad often smoked a turkey on the Weber Grill that would feed an army. Mom made potato salad, pea salad and jello, of course, and a relish tray that was bigger than the turkey!We went through gallons of coffee and kool-aid, bags of Canadian pickle and ketchup chips and dozens of Coffee Crisp candy bars. It was a wonderful weekend that always hurt when it was over and we all headed back to the states for our jobs. Once mom passed, everything changed and it just didn’t feel the same even though we tried our hardest to capture the feeling.
This year, my family can’t even get into Canada as the border remains closed. I imagine new traditions will emerge and life will go on. God gave us the gift of memory so that we can sometimes just live in our heads and re-live those precious moments.
Blessings on this special day,
Pastor Sue