My Ramblings

This afternoon, Linda and I drove to the San Joaquin Memorial Cemetery in Santa Nella to see where we will bury Daniel’s cremains next week. The sprawling cemetery is for veterans and their spouses. Neither of us has ever been there before and Linda was surprised to see that there are no standing markers. She expected to see hundreds of white crosses marking the graves as depicted in the movie, “Saving Private Ryan.” The markers at SJV are all flat rectangles made of a cement type material. The nearby brown hills along I-5 are a stark contrast to the beautiful, thick green sod of the burial grounds. It is remote and peaceful. Daniel will be happy we are putting him in a place surrounded by other vets with similar ideals to his own. I counted approximately a dozen groundskeepers maintaining the area and preparing to lay fresh sod around the new graves. Judging by the size of the place and the number of workers, this is a busy place. Daniel’s memorial service back in June was a beauti