LANTANA, Fla. — Memorial Day is a time to stop and honor our nation's fallen heroes, but the day can mean different things to different people.
Forgotten Soldiers Outreach and Palm Beach Memorial Park Cemetery partnered this year for the 18th annual "A Day to Remember" Memorial Day service.
Monday's ceremony put into focus the saying "All gave some, some gave all." There are not many places where that hits closer to home than at the cemetery, which is the final resting place for many service members.
Flags were waving and veterans, as well as their families and friends, were at full attention for Monday's ceremony. They were all there to pay respect to armed servicemen and women no longer with us.
Honor guards, wreath layings and also a dove release remembered the fallen.
But for those who live through the loss of a service member every day, what does Memorial Day mean to them?
WPTV anchor Mike Trim, a Navy veteran, was a keynote speaker at the Forgotten Soldiers Outreach event. He said his young son is already catching on to the day's significance.
"I must've told my son the importance of Memorial Day in the past couple of years because when I sat him down last night before I went to bed I said let me tell you what Memorial Day is all about, he immediately said, 'It's about the men and women who died for this country,'" Trim said. "I said, 'Wow, words mean something.'"
For others, it may be hard to put into words.
"Remembering," combat veteran Andre Rivera said. "When you've lost somebody the best thing you can do is try to remember the good times with them."
"[It is about the] sacrifice that those have given for our country, that those have given for our country that we can never repay," Ricky Seymour, warrant officer-commanding officer at the Coast Guard Lake Worth Inlet station.
"I think the most important thing that we all need to know is that there are so many people who gave their lives to protect our freedom," State Attorney Dave Aronberg said.
"We all know what we signed for, no matter what the initial reason was that we got in," Army Sgt. Jack Lord said. "We know there's a chance we might not come back, but we do it anyway."
"[Memorial Day is meant to] honor those that served and those that didn't come home," Greg Parkinson of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Former WPTV news anchor Jim Sackett, a military veteran himself, also spoke at the event.
"Thank you all for joining us on this Memorial Day 2023 to remember and not to forget those who gave their all," Sackett said.
