St. James Cemetery

The day after other family members attended a ceremony at the St. James cemetery, the boys and I traveled to St. James.   We stopped in the chapel to begin with.

Maxim noticed the beautiful stained glass window in the design of the seal of the United States that he had read about.

Also in that room were diagrams and maps of the D-Day invasion.

If you click on the map above, you will get a clear vision of the distance from the Normandy beaches to Bruz.  Other people will know with 100% certainty, but it is my understanding that planes like Cecil's "box car" were dropping bombs in an effort to soften the defenses of Germany in preparation for the full-scale land invasion that came soon after June 6.

When you click on the above photo, it will enlarge and you will be able to read the words.

While walking to around the cemetery, the boys and I were excited to find the home states of all the soldiers.  We found men from every state except Vermont and Hawaii.  Oskar asked if there would be anyone from Alaska.  I tried to make it a thinking/history problem out of this, asking him why there would NOT be anyone from Alaska.  My thinking was that since Alaska was not a state yet, there couldn’t be anyone from Alaska there.  Just as I finished posing the question to my youngest son, Oskar, found a soldier from Alaska.

The boys were especially impressed by the crosses on Medals of Honor-winner graves.

We easily found Cecil’s grave.  It was the one that had some flowers. 

         I didn’t want to put flowers down because I didn’t like the idea of the wastefulness.  Flowers simply dry up and are thrown away.  Instead, the boys and I wrote messages to Cecil.

 I wrote, 

“Dear Cecil, I am here with my two sons, Oskar and Maxim.  We aren’t bringing flowers because I am concerned about using too many resources.  My boys are writing messages to you, as am I.

Two days ago, we visited the area where the Allies built a floating harbor, at Arromanches.  The ingenuity and resourcefulness shown by those men, I’m sure, is similar to your own.

We are here to show respect for you and appreciation for your sacrifice. I’m sure that I don’t know the magnitude of our deft to you and your fellow soldiers.  Thank you, James Martin.”

Maxim wrote, “Dear Cecil, for me, the history of D-Day is exciting to learn about.  The most exciting to learn was about the floating harbor.  Thank you for defeating the Germans.  If you had not, they might have taken over the world.”

Oskar wrote, “Thank you for going into war.  Or else Hitler would have taken over the world.”  He also drew a picture of the cemetery and of the trucks using the harbor.

Oskar asked, “How will he read them?”

“Well,” I said, “that’s a great question.”