Bud #7: Honoring and Remembering

The Bar was empty when I stopped at Bud’s Geauga Corners. That old white clapboard building out at the edge of the county was beginning to feel like home. I asked Bud where everybody was.

He said “all the boys are out working.”

I said “Bud I haven’t seen Randy in here for a while. Where has he been hiding?”

Bud said, “he’s assigned himself a new volunteer job at the cemetery. He spends a couple days a week working there cleaning up, raking leaves and replacing the little flags on the graves when they become worn.”

“I think it’s good for him” said Bud.

“It seems to center him and let him sort out his feelings.”

“You’re sounding a bit like” Dr. Phil” I joked.

Bud responded, “Dave, you just need a slice of lemon.”  

That was Bud and Randy’s coded language for you’ve got a friend in me. I had heard it often between Bud and Randy when I first started coming to Bud’s.

It was true. Vietnam had really torn Randy up inside, but Bud was his true friend.

Still Vietnam was always there just below the surface.

In May he couldn’t go to those Memorial Day ceremonies.  He hated it when guys like that judge ran their mouths. They would ramble on making speeches about sacrifice.. Randy thought sacrifice was something that judge knew nothing about. Randy stood in the cemetery and thought to himself, that here is where I see sacrifice. Every one of those little flags meant sacrifice.  So Randy began his cleanup by replacing worn flags and polishing their medallion holders. As the cleanup work continued the cemetery began looking better and better.

One day while he was scrubbing moss off a gravestone he looked over and saw Amanda putting flowers on her father’s grave. Randy had seen Amanda occasionally around Geauga Corners. She was a widow who had moved back to Geauga Corners to take care of her father.  When Alvin passed, he was buried in this cemetery.

Her father, Alvin had been a World War II Vet and was in the invasion at Normandy. Amanda frequently visited his grave to put flowers on it.

Randy walked over to introduce himself. A conversation seemed to start by itself.  Amanda shared her memories of her father, but Randy was more reserved with his memories of Vietnam. Instead he told her of his plans to keep the cemetery graves clean and make sure that all the vets had proper flags. Amanda liked the idea and offered to help with the cleanup.

After they worked at the cemetery for several weeks, Randy tried to share with Amanda that this was his way to honor those who have served and especially to remember his buddies from Vietnam who didn’t make it back, but he just couldn’t get the explanation out.

Instead he told Amanda that he really disliked all those ceremonies where politicians like that judge show up to try to impress veterans. Amanda knew that judge set Randy off. When her father was alive she had gone to Memorial Day ceremonies with him, but she had stopped. She had grown tired of listening to windbag politicians like that judge.

Not only did the clean up happen, but a unique bond began to develop between Randy and Amanda. As weeks passed, hat bond of friendship and companionship grew stronger.

These two people were lucky to find each other this late in life.  Randy was almost 70 and Amanda was in her mid 60s. 

One day while they were trimming the grass around a grave, Randy began trying to explain how  he felt and why he was cleaning up the cemetery. He knew his explanation sounded a bit muddled.

Amanda stopped him and said “You are honoring the Vets in your own special way.” They paused for a long moment looking at each other. Something unspoken had just happened between them.

Randy replied, “I think we both are.”

Bud’s Geauga Corners will be on hiatus next week.

It will return the following week and answer the question

that is on everyone’s mind,

“Will  Harold Be A Bridesmaid?”

The opinions expressed are solely those of Dave Partington and of course Bud, Randy, Harold, Larry and the rest of the guys sitting at the bar at Bud’s. Bud’s Geauga Corners is a work of fiction. Bud’s Geauga Corners is paid for solely by Dave Partington.