Good day to each of you. I hope you had a very nice Memorial Day weekend.

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In this week’s column, we honor 250 years of our great nation. This past weekend on Memorial Day we honored our fallen; many of us also remembered with great gratitude our veterans … those who have served and those of you who are serving.

What an amazing country we are blessed to live in. Sometimes I wonder what it must’ve been like for those serving our country back in those very early years. With our great country being 250 years old this year, it reminds us of the service and sacrifice so many have given. The spirit and dedication, the patriotism must have run high back then as it still does today. Old Glory still waves on front porches, old folks and young folks still sit together, sometimes with a frosty ice-cold glass of lemonade in hand, perhaps a soldier’s picture to remind us of why we’re able to live free and sit on our front porches today.

This past weekend, we honored the service and sacrifice of all those who have served our great nation. The colors of our beautiful flag, the red, white and blue stand for so much. I know you all know what I’m saying when I say that it is such an inspiration to just stand quietly and watch our beautiful flag as it’s moved by a slight breeze; a gentle breeze that seems to remind us of those who have sacrificed so much. For many of us, we will visit the final resting place of our veterans … we will kneel at their graves … we will honor their lives. It is a very humbling experience to walk through Santa Nella, the fields of red, white and blue, flags of service on every grave. The well-manicured lawns, home to thousands of our veterans, it is a powerful moment in time. Walking through, it is a lonely feeling but a feeling of great gratitude … reading the names … kneeling to pay your respects. Time stands still as you come upon the soldier’s name; the name you know. Truly, as it is in every cemetery where a veteran rests … from Arlington to Gettysburg … our history books tell us that many great people have been laid to rest in these hallowed fields. We read of the lives lost; the beaches of Normandy to the White Cliffs of Dover; these are all places of reverence … forever in our hearts.

Vietnam was a war fought during my high school days; a war that saw so many of my friends and family sacrifice so much. A war that I am sure many of you reading this remember very vividly. Since then, many more have sacrificed so much. We must remember, freedom is not free. God Bless America.

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If you have news or items to share in this column, you may reach me, Winnie, by email at winniemullins51@gmail.com or by text or telephone at 209-985-5233.