More than 750 veterans' graves at Pine Mountain Cemetery were given American flags ahead of Memorial Day Weekend. Volunteers gathered at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday to ensure each grave site had a flag along with it. Volunteers double-checked to ensure none were missed on Friday morning.
Family members and loved ones stopped by throughout the afternoon paying their respects. Ginny Snyder and her sister picked up where they left off last Memorial Day Weekend: cleaning dad's grave. It was their late mother's request who passed away three years ago.
“She said before she passed away 'Now, this is up to you girls. You got to come and clean the grave every memorial." So we're here doing that today," said Snyder, daughter of WWII Veteran Lawrence Aaker Tweten. A Memorial Day get-together is planned to keep her father's memory alive.
“He loved Memorial Weekend because he was born on the 29th," Snyder added. "He partied every Memorial weekend. He thought the whole weekend was his to party. “
Aaker Tweten served in the U.S. Navy. Across The Yard, WWII Veteran Vernal Middleton was laid to rest in a columbarium next to his wife. His daughter Susan Estrada, a friend of Snyder's from high school, paid her respects.
“My dad enlisted in the Navy," Estrada explained. "He was a radio man and he was in Kwajalein and he was in Alaska.“
As a radioman, Middleton communicated via a cable that runs along the ocean floor. According to Estrada, his service on the Pacific is what brought the family to California.
“I was daddy's girl," Estrada said. "Mom took care of the other kids, and when she was sick, I took care of the kids, and Dad helped me. He just was a good guy.”
The VFW Memorial Day Ceremony will start at 11 a.m. on Monday in Section P at the flagpole at Pine Mountain Cemetery.
