May 25 Memorial Day Parade

Monday:  I drove downtown to watch the Memorial Day Parade and arrived at about 9:15. I parked my pretty red Honda in the back parking lot at Acton Institute, after calling Dylan to ask him if it was okay. It's nice and close to Veteran's Memorial Park in Grand Rapids--right across the street on Fulton--so it was a perfect and very free place to park! 

"Ruby" parked behind Acton Institute

I walked around for awhile prior to the 10am parade beginning. Emma and I had talked yesterday about possibly seeing each other down here. Emma's friend Melanie is in the Guard, and it was possible she might march in the parade this morning--it turned out, however, that she declined and I guess most of her group also did because there wasn't a single "Guard" troop that I saw today in the parade.

Jesse was in charge of most of the coordination of the parade. He has done this for years. It is a very frustrating responsibility ... kind of like being the "designated felon" for a business group that doesn't run very well. It seems that every year absolutely NO ONE assists on the planning of this event. And the City of Grand Rapids is also very lax in its participation and planning--everything being very last-minute and critical towards Jesse, when he has done all that he can do with nobody responding to his emails and enquiries, etc. BUT ... here is Jesse consulting with other vets as to some of the details of the set-up. See him?

I love to watch Jesse when he is in charge of an event like this. He takes his role very seriously, and gets the job done. He doesn't naturally "like" people (this is often noted in bold print on many of the T-shirts he wears), but I think he actually does very well when he converses with people. I find that he is polite, professional and very kind. What more can you possibly ask of a person?!?!?

When Jesse arrived at about 8am today he found many homeless people occupying the "park" where the speaking and main event was to occur. Eventually, the GRPD encouraged those people to move elsewhere--and it is very sad that we have homeless people in our city ... but this "park" is not generally well maintained: the American flag is faded and the pulleys on it are broken--apparently the flag is officially to be flown at half mast until noon on Memorial Day ... but this was not taken care of for today's event. 

I was very happy to connect with Emma with spare time before the parade began. She was able to find a close enough parking place too. We each had brought chairs to sit in to watch the parade. Emma hardly sat down, however, because she was busy filming. There was one year when I was downtown, I think with Kaity, for the parade and I took very careful pictures of every group marching, bands playing, bikes riding, etc., as well as all of the speakers too. But today, I just needed to snap a few pictures to remember the day. Besides, I always get all the names of the speakers mixed up because I don't write them down!

Emma does very well with the camera she purchased many years ago. She has a really nice lens that she can use for zooming close up and it gives her a nice quality picture.

Emma and I stayed and listened to the prayers (which were offered in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ), the men who received honors (like "Kent County Veteran of the Year") and spoke to the crowd, etc. The national anthem was sung acapella quite nicely by a young woman. The crowd was made up mostly of families, which was nice to see--people bringing their little kids down here to watch our country and military folk be honored. People were very well behaved, for which I was thankful.

Here's Jesse "tearing down" all of his equipment after the ceremony was finished. He spoke with many veterans throughout the morning--many approaching him and telling him that they appreciated all he did for the event and for the veterans in Kent County. Jesse has been pretty discouraged about the entire veterans organization here--due to the lack of people willing to get on their feet and actually contribute something to their fellow vets. I am very pleased to be the mother of THIS veteran and so thankful that he came home alive from Iraq after his deployment there in 2007-2008. I love him so much.

And dear Emma. What a JOY to be with her today. I can't even find adequate words to explain the deep connection I feel with her, and I am immensely thankful to be her grandma.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for being such a good Father to us. My heart is very full of His love today.