May 27, 2013 MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION

                                Memorial  Day  Celebration

Today, May 27, 2013, the whole nation commemorates Memorial Day in honor of the men and women in the Armed Forces who gave up their lives to defend Freedom for you, me and for our country, at large. It is a special day of prayer for the eternal repose of their souls as well as a time of offering our lasting gratitude to them for the penultimate sacrifice they rendered to us and our future generations.  Unmistakably, it is also a day of solemn remembrance of our loved ones and their loss which left an indelible emptiness in our hearts.

Right now, my thoughts revert to my beloved father, Pablo, a Staff Sergeant in the Philippine Scouts, a regiment of the United States Army, who died in the concentration camp of Capas,Tarlac in the Philippines on August 4, 1942. My walk along Memory Lane envisions Subero, my father's elder brother who lost his life in the battlefields of Bataan during the war years of World War II. The ever-smiling face of my brother, Freddie, parades across my mental silver screen who after receiving his diploma in Architecture decided to dedicate his service to the US Navy.

As I am writing this blog, I look at Quail Park which is in front of our house in Sacramento and see the somber grief of Mother Nature with human emotions indelibly associated with this day. The park is at a "stand-still " - empty of the children who usually run here and there under the watchful eyes of their parents or guardians. No one is briskly walking or running around the park for his/her fitness routine. Not a Senior Citizen is sitting on a bench watching the world go by or admiring the manicured green. The trees stand majestically upright and paradoxically, even the rustle of a gentle breeze seems to be absent such that to my gaze, each leaf lie motionless. The whole panorama unfolds under a canopy of dark clouds at 11:38 AM. For a few moments, I stare at the scene as if it is a picture on an album. 

Enthralled by the thought that our dear Lord, through, Mother Nature, helps us to take some moments from our busy lives so as to remember the significance of this day, I closed my eyes and bowed my head in prayer. I prayed for the repose of the souls of those who sacrificed their lives for the preservation of Freedom we now still enjoy. I prayed for the men and women in uniform and for innocent civilians who lost their lives in the "war fronts" against Terrorism in Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere. I lifted the souls of the thousands, nay, millions of victims of the atrocities of war which, lamentably, had twice been in worldwide proportions. Quite inevitably, I remembered the infamous Holocaust at Auschwitz...and my visit there....