Meaning of Memorial Day not lost on volunteers at veterans' cemetery

Yahoo

27-05-2025

SUFFOLK, Va. — On Thursday, volunteers at the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery began preparing the grounds for its Memorial Day ceremony, among them Virginia Natural Gas employees, Boy Scouts, a Marine and about 150 others.
But they all had one mission: place an American flag in front of every grave.
As the third-busiest state veterans cemetery in the country, with about eight burials per day, the volunteers had a lot of ground to cover —14,449 graves to be exact. Since retiring from the Navy last year, it was Donald Boylen II's first time volunteering.
'When you turn around and look — not just the volunteers — … it gets me choked up a little bit because the pride of the red, white and blue,' Boylen said.
Sacrificing two hours of their time to give back to those that sacrificed everything.
'It's a lovely sight to see,' says cemetery superintendent and veteran Angela Bufano. 'But understanding why you're seeing it means more.'
Known as the unofficial start of summer, this holiday weekend is circled on the calendar for a vacation or backyard barbecue. But for veterans and families of the fallen, it takes on an entirely different meaning.
'I didn't think I'd get choked up,' Boylen said. 'But it reminds me of what the brotherhood and sisterhood was.'
Sean Cooper is a grounds and maintenance worker at the cemetery. He also has family buried there.
'I got grandparents that are buried out here, aunts, uncles,' Cooper said. 'It gives me more of a push to want to take care of the grounds. I would do it anyway, but being that they're out here gives me more of a satisfying reason to be here.'
Bufano said many of her friends' kids are buried at the cemetery.
'I try hard not to think about it,' she said. 'It's rough, but it's why we're here.'
Before you head back to work tomorrow after a relaxing weekend with friends and family, Bufano had a simple request.
'I just wish everyone could take a moment and reflect on why we are who we are, why we have the freedoms we have,' Bufano said, 'and think about our fallen heroes.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.