“Remember me with laughter”

Flopping Aces ^ | 05-26-09 | Wordsmith

[Starman417]

Photo by Scott Varley, for the Daily Breeze

"He told us ... `I don't want you to remember me in tears,"' his mother, Gail Johnson-Roth, told about 250 mourners at his funeral at Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood. "`I want you to remember me with laughter."' -from the Daily Breeze, two years ago

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood.

Not long after arriving, as I was walking through the cemetery, a particular gravesite stood out because it was embraced by flowers and balloons. I guessed it was a recent soldier who had died. Walking over to it, I recognized the name of who I stumbled upon: Daniel Patrick Cagle. I had put together a post when he was buried two years ago, moved by the above photo. It had caught my attention on the front page of a local paper (Torrance, actually; but still part of the greater LA area), The Daily Breeze, as I was waiting in a diner.

Here are a few photos I took yesterday:

[Kartographer]

We need to not forget that: "They also serve who only stand and wait."
May this family and all such who have suffered find a peace were in the smiles of remembrance will out number the tears of loss.