Mary’s Story

 I love this story!  Mary is one of the eldest members of the DAR Rio Grande Chapter.  Mary’s father was a military veteran.  In 1935 when Mary was 5 years old, her father was working at a job building locks on the Mississippi River.  Tragically, that same year he was killed on the job when a large boulder fell on him and crushed him.  Fast forward 90 years to December 2025.  Mary who that month had turned 96 was at her daughter’s home just days before Christmas.  She was seated at the kitchen table while waiting for the families dinner to begin.  To pass the time, she turned on her iPad which brought her to her open Facebook page.  She was stunned and couldn’t quite believe her eyes when she found herself looking at an image of her father’s gravestone.  She couldn’t comprehend why or how she was seeing her father’s gravestone.  She then looked at the source and saw that the image was being shown on a page for the “Wreaths Across America” organization.  This organization remembers the fallen and honors those who served by placing wreaths each December at the gravestones of veterans who served in the armed forces.  Mary hadn’t been aware of the existence of this organization.  They had placed a wreath at the grave of her father and it was being shown on the organization’s page on Facebook.  Her father’s grave was not in a military cemetery but they do also lay wreaths for veterans in other non military cemeteries.  Mary was still dumbfounded and amazed by her experience of turning on her iPad and seeing her father’s gravestone!!

After the holidays, Mary returned to attend her first DAR chapter meeting of the new year in February 2026.  She was still so amazed and impressed by what she had experienced that she got up to speak and share her story with the chapter!  I love her story also!  She later made a comment to me about how amazing she found it that all this time later in the year 2025 she was surprised to turn on her iPad and see the gravestone of her father who had passed away 90 years previously.  I am amazed also!  And 90 years does not in any way erase or diminish the significance of her father’s or her story and their connection.  I like to think her father was wishing his daughter a Merry Christmas. 🎁 

For myself personally, I don’t care for social media for a number of reasons most of which have to do with how they are designed and all of the added content beyond the posts of friends and family, but this I believe is one very positive and amazing story to come from social media.