As the granddaughter of a World War II veteran, I have great respect for all of our fallen men and women who have put their lives on the line for us all.
With that being said, my husband is a township trustee in which there are three cemeteries he and the other trustees have responsibilities of taking care of as well as the many other things they do. As anyone who’s ever been in a cemetery knows, American flags are placed on the graves of our fallen soldiers for Memorial Day. It takes many hours walking through the cemeteries looking at every grave to identify them all. It is especially difficult on the very old headstones that are not readable and there are no other identifying markers showing a veteran is laid to rest there.
I know this first hand as I and our daughter helped him with placing these flags a couple weekends ago. It is not a task taken lightly as the entire cemetery is walked and every headstone is checked. So the fact a person takes the time to look up the trustees’ names online and then anonymously texts them and complains that a flag was not properly placed to their liking on their loved one’s grave is extremely upsetting and disheartening. Placing these flags is not something that is taken lightly nor done in a hurrying manner, a lot of time is put into doing it. We have all lost people we love for many different reasons and in many different ways. Can we all just not automatically jump on the defense and attack others thinking that our own pain is worse than what anyone else’s could be?
Christine Kanuckel
Danville, Ohio
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