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Memorial Day weekends are always a time for family gatherings. Whether in the yard with the grill billowing smoke across the patio furniture that’s occupied by parents and grandparents as kids run screaming about the yard with water guns, or bobbing along on a boat in the beating sun while cousins take turns being towed on a crazy looking float, American families always tend to get together over that last weekend in May.

Many families will even stop to remember why they have that three-day weekend: to honor those who gave their lives in service to our country. My parents’ families have always been especially reverent of that, having many veterans all the way back to the Revolutionary War, including some who didn’t make it home.

This year was a bit different for my family. Saturday, we gathered for a send-off party for my stepson. The weekend was an odd convergence in time, of being near his birthday, on Memorial Day weekend, and being a few short weeks before he goes overseas with his National Guard unit. 

It’s a strange feeling, sending a kid off to a foreign country, whether it’s wartime or not. You never know what could happen. And sure, it’s not like he’s going alone, sneaking into somewhere with a rifle. He’s going to be stationed at a U.S. military base, with all of the protections that come with that and the friends he will make there of fellow soldiers. But, it’s still bittersweet.

We watched him grow up from a smart, funny little kid playing in the school band and running around with his friends, into a full grown man who joined the Guard, went to basic and A.I.T., decided to go to college, and got deployed at the end of his freshman year. Now this young man is joining the long line of Americans who took up the rifle and stood on the line, guarding our freedoms from all comers, no matter where on the planet they may be.

As his extended family – from his siblings, his mom and me, his dad and stepmom, his grandparents, cousins, and friends – all gathered with a bountiful spread of all the smoked and grilled meats and more, I couldn’t help but think that this family is unusual, in that we always get along. But, Americans tend to come together for times like that. 

There’s no tribal separation with arguments of political or religious ideologies, and even old grievances may be set aside. We all come together to honor those who make the sacrifice of service to our nation. We are all family in those moments. 

How nice it would be if we could always be like that; respectful, supportive, jovial and friendly. How nice it would be if we could always remember that all gave some, but some gave all.

How nice it would be if we didn’t have to send our sons off to protect our freedom. 

While it’s good for him to be able to see the world, visit a foreign country, and all of the life experience that comes with that, it is still as I said bittersweet to see him go, giving some of himself to the rest of us in doing so. I pray that he does not have to give all, and returns safely at the end of his deployment, with amazing fun stories of the foreign land and culture.

I’m proud of him. His mom and dad and siblings are proud of him. This country is proud of him and the others in his shoes. May we all pray that they all return safely. 

How nice it would be if they would all return safely.

Jeremy Crowson is a staff writer for the Demopolis Times. He can be reached at jeremy.crowson@demopolistimes.com.