The origins of Memorial Day and how it has evolved<\/a>
Cherry Hill reflects<\/p>\nThere was a solemn Memorial Day service in Cherry Hill. The ceremony\u2019s keynote speaker was retired Navy Adm. Karen Flaherty-Oxler, director of Philadelphia\u2019s VA Medical Center. She said that since our nation was founded, 1.3 million people have died in wars defending our rights and liberties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the size of Dallas, Texas,\u201d she said. \u201cSo when we think about that and we think about being able to be here today to speak about them, speak about the promises of what\u2019s ahead, we should remember them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flaherty-Oxler said Americans should support the nation\u2019s living veterans by asking them to tell their stories \u2014 and asking what would make their lives better. It\u2019s especially necessary, she said, in a year where we celebrate the country\u2019s 250th anniversary. <\/p>\n
The indoor ceremony came to a brief halt when 102-year-old World War II veteran May Brill took a tumble off the foot-high riser when her folding chair gave way. But she was helped up, and Mayor David Fleisher said she insisted on staying.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018I\u2019m 102 \u2014 it\u2019s going to take more than that,\u2019\u201d said Felischer.<\/p>\n
Weather cancels Delco parade<\/p>\n
Due to inclement weather, the annual Memorial Day parade in Media, Delaware County, was canceled, but that did not stop folks from coming out and paying their respects.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that we\u2019re not having a parade today, but the spirit and the remembrance will continue on,\u201d said Pennsylvania Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Frank McGovern.<\/p>\n
He was slated to be the grand marshal of this year\u2019s parade, but in true military fashion, he took the cancellation in stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way the military operates: improvise, adapt and overcome,\u201d he said. \u201cYou always have to have a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new plan was a ceremony at Towne House restaurant in Media, where the Penncrest High School band played and local dignitaries shared remarks. McGovern reminded the attendees that, parade or not, the day is about something bigger than marching down the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI deployed in 2003\/2004 to Iraq, so we lost people there. [In] 2009, I went back to Iraq \u2014 we lost people there. I know people from Drexel Hill, Upper Darby that I grew up with died overseas serving our country,\u201d he said. \u201cMemorial Day is a day to remember all those soldiers that paid the ultimate sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tammy Curran, a U.S. Navy vet who served in the 1980s and \u201990s, echoed the sentiment: \u201cMemorial Day is about remembering those who came before me, to provide freedom and safety to our country, to our people. It means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Despite the gloomy weather, many Memorial Day parades and ceremonies carried on throughout the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":821588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,45994,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,2512],"class_list":["post-821587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-memorial-day","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-veterans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116636682800024066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}