CLINTON — It was proud yet personal. Historical but heartfelt.
Washington State Rep. Norma Smith stepped into the empty place where, six years ago, her late husband had humbly stood: a patch of grass between graves near the entrance of the Clinton Cemetery, before a crowd gathered to mark Memorial Day.
Smith paused and looked out across the crowd of nearly 100. Her right hand tightly gripped the corner of the black metal stand holding the pages of her short speech.
The memories came quickly; the words would not.
“Six years ago today, an American hero stood here,” she said. “It was a day I will never forget, because my husband Steve was so honored to be asked to speak of the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in the service of our country.”
Smith said she would visit her husband’s memorial, too, on this day of remembering. Steve Smith, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and lieutenant colonel in the Marines, died in September 2005 when the Airlift Northwest helicopter he was piloting crashed on its way home into the water off Edmonds.
Norma Smith then remembered the many others who have died serving their country, and recalled the words of Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, when he ordered that flowers be placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868:
“We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose … of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion. What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes?
“If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us,” she said.
Smith asked the crowd to remain united in the memory of those who had served, and stay grateful for their sacrifice.
“From the farmers and frontiersmen who fought with George Rogers Clark to take the western front of the American Revolution, to those who in recent days lost their lives in Afghanistan, today we remember their sacrifice and express our humble thankfulness for the gifts of freedom and liberty that they purchased with their own lives,” Smith said.
It was important to never forget, she said, recalling how the Old Testament, and the New Testament, are filled with hundreds of references that use the word “remember.”
“God calls us to remember. In remembering, we express the divine spark within each of us,” she explained. “It is in remembering that we honor our fallen heroes, and learn the lessons of history hard won by their sacrifice. Their actions inspire us to do our duty by serving in whatever capacity we are called.”
As some in the audience wiped away tears, many heads then bowed as Roy Simmons read the 67 names of local veterans now departed, from George Allen to Henry Wrightsman, and Will Mellish of Boy Scout Troop 57 played “Taps” amid the dozens of small American flags placed on the veterans’ graves that fluttered in the soft breeze.
