What will you do with your one wild and precious life?

My first memory of Memorial Day is of visiting New England cemeteries when I was about six years old with my grandmother, my namesake, Priscilla Lawler. I called her Nana.

My mother, Eunice McIver and my sisters Ellen and Gale joined us. With pansies, geraniums, spades and watering cans in hand, we cleaned up winter debris and planted flowers at the graves of people that we were to remember.

It was a springtime ritual that as a young child I could not fully comprehend, but I knew that it was about love and I understood the importantance of remembering people who had died.

Being a very persistent child, I am certain that I asked endless questions about the people who names were carved on the headstones. I am glad that I did, because now some 60 years later, I still remember the stories they told me about the people they had known, cared for and loved.

Important lessons were learned in the cemetery; I learned what sacrifice and honor meant. I learned that the American flags beside a headstone meant that this person had served our country .They may have even given their life in service. It made me feel sad and proud at the same time.

In New England you can find graves of soldiers dating back to the Revolutionary War and as a first grader in Massachusetts, we were already learning about what it meant to be a patriot, with a capital P.

WWIII had ended not long before I was born and the immense loss of life from that war was still keenly felt by my Grandparents, my parents and their entire generations . Seeing the flags , reading the names and dates on the headstones, I felt a kinship with these departed souls and I sensed that they were somehow connected to me, to each other and to everyone.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Memorial Day in the midst of a world wide pandemic. More American lives have been lost in just four months than during the entire Viet Nam War. It truly is incomprehensible.

I was a high school and a college student during the Viet Nam War. With my peers, I marched and protested a war we could not support. We lived with the fear of boys we knew being drafted being and were horrified as the death toll climbed to 58, 220 on the nightly news.

We could never have imagined this pandemic and a death toll that has reached almost double the number of soldiers lost in Viet Nam. We are struggling to comprehend the unimaginable loss here of almost 100,000 lives and millions lost all over the world.

As we double down in our daily efforts to keep the virus at bay, to protect ourselves and our families, we are unable to properly mourn this loss. The charts, the numbers and the maps with hotspots reduce lives lost to statistics that fill us with dread, rather than remembrance.

Our own dear Kameron will bury her grandmother this coming Wednesday on May 27th. Florence Elaine Wicks did not die from Covid-19, but her death has certainly been complicated by it. Life long friends could not visit this 77 year old woman in her last weeks on this earth. They will not be able to hug and comfort her family as they attend her virtual funeral. A funeral where only a few immediate family members will be present and everyone else will be viewing from a device of some kind.

Florence met her husband, Nathaniel Edward Wicks, known as Butch and called Poppy by Kam, when they were in third grade. Their love story is one that dreams are made of. Poppy and Kam’s entire family, as well as all who loved Florence, a treasured member of her community and church, will say their final goodbye with a beautiful homecoming, but not the one they would have planned BC ( Before-Covid). Grief for them, as for so many others has been made even more difficult by the pandemic.

Our first Memorial Day began humbly in May, 5, 1866 and initially commemorated U.S. personnel who had died during a deadly Civil War from 1861 -1865, many of whom died from a Small Pox outbreak.

Later, Memorial Day became a day to honor all who have served our country. And later still a day to remember all who have died, not only veterans.

Over time Memorial Day evolved into a 3 day weekend celebration, a kick off to mark the start of summer, replete with patriotic parades , big barbecues and super weekend savings.

This year there will be no parades and gatherings are most likely to be subdued affairs of less than 10 people - our innermost safe circles, preferably socially distanced.

Please note however, that the relentless blast of super sales has not ceased! They began several days ago and will no doubt continue into next week. When did that madness begin and remembrance was replaced by 40 -60% off?

I hope this year we are able to re-visit the intention of the first Memorial Day; to remember all those who have died and to honor the lives they have lived with respect and gratitude.

The official “ national moment of remembrance” was set at 3pm on the very first Memorial Day. Perhaps we can pause tomorrow at 3pm for a moment, to remember all those who have gone before us and the millions of dearly departed souls who have left us in the past four months.

You may want to say a prayer, light a candle or simply close your eyes for a moment to remember these many lives lost. In doing so, you will remind yourself of who you are in this moment and ask yourself once again, what you will do with this life precious life you have been given.

Be well, stay well and celebrate life.