The Rest of the Story

You will be lost if you have not read this. 

“Dults ruin everything”. (I don’t know why he can’t say adults.) 

“Did the adults at the cemetery do something that upset you?”

“They upset everybody and the didn’t use their good words, they used bad words.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Did you get all the flowers put out?”

“Yes, but then people started moving them around and they started yelling at each other and it was a mess.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound very good. Did anyone do anything to try and help?”

“Kind of. Some guy played that song the kid plays every night and everyone got quiet. He said that he was in charge of the place and we worked hard so everyone would have a flower. If you want to place flowers and want the one’s the children worked so hard to get with something else, please bring those sprays back here and we will use them to frame the cemetery. (I had to ask Grandpa what frame the cemetery meant.)

Then Grandpa stood up on a big rock and said “These two boys didn’t ask for donations for these flowers. They worked for every dime. They lied about it, they told people they were trying to earn the money to buy a bike. They got in big trouble for lying.  But they wanted it to be a surprise. If you don’t want the flower that has been placed by your loved one’s grave, we’ll remove it. We tried to put them off to the side in case families have traditions. Got it?”

Then another man yelled at Grandpa,” My Grandpa was drafted and he didn’t want to go to war, so I don’t want those flowers by him.”

Granpa got real quiet. He was talking very low but I was right there and heard him. “Son, I was drafted too. I could have dodged that draft, but I didn’t and neither did your Grandpa. Like me he hated every minute of it and it changed his life forever. We need to honor him. If you don’t like the way we are honoring take those flowers up to frame the cemetery, I beleive your Grandpa deserves to be thanked, but if want to celebrate hate, you have the right to do that as well. We fought for that right.” 

“Oh my how did you remember he said all that?”

“it’s all written right here, the newspaper guy gave me what Grandpa said. He said that I should be proud of him even if he yelled and whispered.”

“Well I guess it was kind of a mess over there. How do you feel about it now?”

“Yes, you did a good thing. Some people didn’t appreciate it.  That is okay as well.  We all learn from things. I think in the end everyone will be happy about it. We will have to wait and see.”