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Memorial Day - 1993 
By Susan Winters

It's time again..........
for my painful pilgrimage
to that grassy area in a quiet, peaceful, section.............................
off the beaten path of the thousands of visitors.
I make this long, lonely walk with tears in my eyes.

I pass rows of seemingly endless
simple white marble headstones that sweep across these green hills.
Each with a family..........................
Each with a mother who knows my pain.

Rows of flags flutter in the spring breeze
on this special day.......I keep walking......
to that special hill that draws me.............
My son is here......................................
forever 22 years old in my memory of love.

How I miss him............the light of my life,
taken from me so young........ his dreams left unfulled,
Now he lies here in quiet splendor
among men unknown to me.

This is my own "special piece"
of this great national shrine.
I claim it as my own.....and mine alone!
 
Written in loving memory of Sergeant Franklin Dennis Winters by his mother.

May we never forget the sacrifices made by our military forces, whether in be in war or in peace.