The American Cemetery in Luxembourg

“Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression”

It’s Memorial Day weekend so we visited the American cemetery in Luxembourg. We don’t always visit military cemeteries on Memorial Day, but we often do—a couple years ago we visited Punchbowl in Honolulu; another year we visited the military cemetery on NAS Pensacola.

Chris was particularly moved to see the gravesite of General Patton, who was buried here alongside his troops after his neck was broken in a car accident in 1945. What a bummer, to survive the war and then die in a car accident. It seems to make it worse somehow.

I find the American cemeteries dotting the European landscape hard to bear sometimes, especially the endless rows of graves in Normandy or the frozen out-of-the-way fields near Ypres.

But here, the precise, clipped lawn, the bold green of the surrounding trees, the blooming azaleas, trickling fountains symbolizing resurrection and eternal life, and the famous general buried alongside countless rows of soldiers, each grave topped with two fluttering flags—the three stripes of Luxembourg’s national flag and our own Stars and Stipes—it was all unexpectedly peaceful, hopeful, and very moving. Maybe it’s because this Memorial Day coincides with some COVID restrictions relaxing; maybe it’s because this is the first time we’ve left Belgium since last September; maybe it’s because this is the third day this year I haven’t had to wear a jacket every moment of the day, or maybe it was the cheerfulness of the colorful flags waving. Whatever the reason, there was enough hope in my heart to feel grateful for their sacrifices rather than wanting to give up and climb down into a hole.

There were a lot of other Americans there, too; the bases in Germany are less than two hours away.

“My kids were really excited to hear y’all speaking English,” I said to another mom there with her kids. She looked at me a little blankly and blinked.

“They were …offended… we were speaking English…?”

“No, excited!” I said. We both laughed. Thank goodness. That could have been awkward.

Happy Memorial Day! I hope it’s filled with flags, thankfulness and family, and no awkward misunderstandings with strangers.