“For certainly what others have done for us should be an inspiration to all to keep up their good work”

As I review my previous Memorial Day homilies, I’ve come to realize that there is a pattern unfolding.  Taken together, they help to tell us why we are here again in this cemetery.

I’ve had the occasion, and the challenge, to explore with you how and why we voluntarily meet here on this designated day to celebrate the lives and mourn the passings of preachers, teachers, siblings, parents, ancestors, neighbors, heroes, government officials, duck hunters, bird watchers, conservation commissioners, friends, lovers, spouses, artists, musicians, fishermen, cow farmers and others. Truly a web of life.

There were people I knew who sometimes quit too soon and some who might have done better if they quit sooner. Perhaps it is our very individual differences that are a clue to our overall success as a species.  Certainly we are not all alike. In this world full of predators, parasites, and unforeseen diseases, if we were all alike, we would all have succumbed to whatever it was that struck. But that has not been the case and somehow I suspect our fate lies elsewhere.

So let’s revel in glories of our various lives, our music and other arts, our religious faiths and, high on my list, our love for each other, for certainly what others have done for us should be an inspiration to all to keep up their good work.

Here in Lyme and Old Lyme we have homes or resting places of so many people who lived here and left us with something to remember them by.  Let me mention a few in no particular order: 

• Jim Noyes, who participated in beach landings in the Mediterranean in World War II
  
  
• Belton Copp, who left an arm in the Philippines
  
  
• Silver Star awardee Jack Appleby
  
  
• Ezra Lee who was esteemed by Washington
  
  
• Clara Noyes who drew thousands of women into World War I as nurses
  
  
• Roger Tory Peterson, who helped us appreciate birds
  
  
• Amy Henry, who taught hundreds of our children how history matters
  
  
• E. Lea Marsh, who gave us whole generations of Borden Elsies
  

They are not alone.  From my own life, I would recount just one example.  My late wife Edith and I had born to us six children, the last being William John, named for one of his grandfathers.  Billy had Down syndrome. He was loving, kind, generous, sociable, and academically very limited. We could have had him live in an institution as was the common practice at that time, but instead we kept him home.  Here, the Lyme-Old Lyme Board of Education provided as much help as he could benefit from and, lo and behold, limited as he surely was, we, his family and our neighbors accepted him for what he was.

Now Dick and Jane Bugbee knew us. Dick and I were both duck hunters. Dick painted houses. Jane taught piano. Although our homes were about one-half mile apart, Billy would occasionally meander over to visit Jane.  We didn’t take him there, or even show him the way or even suggest his movement.  He just found his own way and Jane would phone Edith that her son Billy was there having a cup of tea, and when he was through, Jane would see him start on his own way back home.  No alarm of lost child, no social worker, no emergency, just Billy Roberts visiting for a cup of tea. 

This is but an example of how this web of life worked for us. We certainly owe the people of Old Lyme our gratitude for everyone’s help.  Incidentally, Billy was a strong supporter of the Old Lyme Fire Department and was elected an Honorary Member.  On a personal note, I’ve been a member of this same Department since 1960, but now frail in my 98^th year, I can no longer remain active as Chaplain. This, then, will probably be my last homily.  I thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Mervin F. Roberts
Chaplain Old Lyme Fire Department