JD – The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. ~Benjamin Disraeli

KJ – My flower pot is going to be cooler than yours.

JM – 99.5% of polio has been eradicated.

EB – Happy Memorial Day!

JS – School’s out for summer!

JW – The success of a production depends on the attention paid to detail.

Since Monday is Memorial Day, I thought I would send out the letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Bixby again.

I know I have sent it out before, but for some reason it really affected me and I wanted to share it again.

Let’s all remember to take a moment of silence this weekend to appreciate those that have given their lives for our freedom. What a tremendous debt of gratitude we owe.

Make it a great weekend.

Jake

Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864.

Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts:

Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

Abraham Lincoln