Norman Runyon Speaks at Isadora Memorial Day Services

Norman Runyon spoke at the Isadora Memorial Day services Monday as around 20 people came to mark the occasion. Huey Rowen opened with prayer and Runyon began by noting that his ancestors came to Worth County in the 1850's to seek a better life for themselves and their children and settled near where Isadora is today. They fought in the Civil War with one of them siding with the North and another siding with the South; it was something they never talked about at the dinner table to preserve harmony. "The ones who are buried here are the ones who took care of us and made us what we are today," he said. "They took us to church, taught us right from wrong, and told us about Jesus."

Runyon asked, "Why would they do that? Because they loved us. Jesus gave his life for the same reason." He said that some day, it would be our turn to be there and before we do, we would walk around a lot and remember those who are buried. "Be thankful for what they did," he encouraged. Norman then read the following poem by Kelly Strong, "Freedom isn't Free:"

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.
I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

Debbie Thummel closed the gathering with the playing of "Taps."