The sweet smell of plumeria will always be associated, in my mind, with the month of May. I can remember, when I was in elementary school, stringing lei made out of the beautiful flowers. At that time, almost every yard had a tree laden with the white, yellow, pink, and red blossoms. So near the end of the month, the call would go out to all the homes to bring as many flowers as possible to the schools.
We would then string the flowers together so to make lei each about two feet (~0.6m) end-to-end. While this is usually too short to give to someone, it's not too short for the purpose we were using it for.
Monday is the Memorial Day holiday in the US. A day set aside to honor our nation's sons and daughters who have died while serving their country in the armed forces during times of war.
Each and every one of the tens of thousands of graves in the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu will have a plumeria lei laid around their gravestones. It is but a small way to to honor those who gave their last full measure of devotion to our country and a way to teach children that freedom is not free.
I'll be taking the day off and will be back here on Tuesday (Lord willing and the 'crick don't rise) but give a good thought for those who have died for the very freedoms we seem so intent on giving away. We can hope that their deaths will not have been in vain.
Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!
