Memorial Days

Memorial Day Weekend 2016
We spend four days in Charleston, South Carolina, visiting Jim’s sister’s family (John and Mary, Sierra and Jenna) and taking in the Spoleto USA Music Festival while getting to know Charleston with its charming 'single houses' with side porch piazzas, its bay views, and its picturesque streets.



The first landmark driving into Charleston is the airport exit sign, which reminds us both that the last time we saw David healthy was when we dropped him off at said airport on January 2, 2014, after a post-Christmas visit to John and Mary. At the curb Jim signed David’s copy of the Family Letters 2006-2011 book Jim wrote. Just a prosaic airport drop-off. David was headed back to Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. I didn’t know I was supposed to watch him carefully, soak in that last bit of Army -Medic health.
We soak up three days of concerts and theater in downtown Charleston: modern dance, chamber music, orchestra, choir, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Monday we walk about a mile to a Westminster Choir concert at the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul. On the way back to downtown it rains and I walk under a large colorful umbrella. Stopped at a traffic light, a man taps my arm and points down at the puddley sidewalk. A small American flag on a stick lies abandoned on the ground. I don’t know if he thinks I had carelessly dropped it, but out of respect I pick it up: my private Memorial Day observance. I hadn’t planned ahead to decorate David’s grave, but that evening our Bishop emails a picture of his thoughtful observance:

Memorial Day Weekend 2014
Four days after I pack my carry-on bag and camp out in David’s hospital room, we're medevacked to Hanscom Airport near Boston (and four miles from our house). After the excitement of the leukemia remission news and the dramatic airlift, we discover that the doctors at MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital) have no intention of doing anything over the Memorial Day weekend. It's a let-down.
But the important thing is that David is home and on his way towards a bone marrow transplant.