My Memorial Day

It was good visiting Dadski Everett Blauvelt’s spot at the Dallas Forth Worth National cemetery in Grand Prairie located at Barium D71.  This morning widow Lili Blauvelt, daughter and son in law Mary and Mike Keifer and I made the trip to the National Cemetery at Grand Prairie.

It was a peaceful place! I needed to visit him, he was the one who got me here in the United States and I owe him gratitude and I wanted to say thank you to him every time. The Mike part of my name was his choice. He was a great fatherly figure to me for 35 years, i.e., more than half of my life.  He is no more but I hear his voice and his smile.  

Indeed, one of the greatest things about American Culture is the amount of reverence given to the final resting place, particularly the veterans. The Veterans cemeteries I have been to are in hills and valleys – it’s a place of serenity, heaven on the earth for our veterans.


We shared a short prayer together, and I felt a sense completing the life transaction,  and it was a closure for Mary and Lili, I am glad we went, and it was the same with me. Michael (Mary’s husband, he is also Mike, but to differentiate I will refer to him as Michael, that’s how Sean Hannity does to me to differentiate from his son) is a good support to Mary, and a good husband through the period Dadski was in Nursing home and finally through the hospice care.

I believe I am blessed with similar sensitivity as Michael. We both are quite and sensitive to the needs of the loved ones, today he was quite and supportive of Mary, he let Mary be Mary and attended to her when needed. I admire that quality in a man.

 I had my own quite Muslim prayers for Dadski ( Link). After the visit, we went to witness the commemoration for the next two and half hours. It was a good relief after the prayers at Dadski’s spot. I guess the Veterans have a way to make life easy for the loved ones.

I ran into Larry Duncan, President of the Dallas County. He and I have been together in many places, he has attended several of the events I organize.  It was a joy to see the dedication of the Boy Scouts – they were everywhere on the grounds passing water bottles. It was really a good thing to see those kids. I know it when my kids were in boy and girl scouts. It was good to see a Sikh child as a part of the boy scouts as well.

My next stop was the Muslim Cemetery in Denton to pray for my late wife Najma and her father. Most Muslims visit cemeteries at least twice a year on two festivals, and pray for every one, the living and the dead. There is nothing special about the cemetery, but just a peaceful thoughtful place I choose to visit, it could be any place and from anywhere.

I prayed for my father and mother, my grandparents, uncles and aunts, my sister in law Tahseen, my nephew Ahmed and my friend Sharif's parents and Bhabi Sudesh Sharma, (wife of my brotherly friend - Kundan Sharma), DJ Sharma, Siraj Ahmed, and my first real friend Jameel Ahmed. Prayer is indeed good for the soul, and good way to connect with yourselves through your loved ones.

It is an all inclusive universal Muslim prayer that runs something like this, “Dear God, forgive me and my parents and my teachers and all the believing men and women, the living and the dead with your mercy. Amen."

 Dear God, I thank you for the life and the freedom you have given me and my fellow humans and I thank for all those who have sacrificed their lives for me to have this freedom to stand freely and pray here today, I salute our men and women in the uniforms for protecting and defending our freedom. Amen.

More Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157633743868273/Show

Memorial Day - http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2013/05/memorial-day-reflections-by-pluralist.html

This URL - http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-memorial-day.html

Mike Ghouse