Global Courant 2023-05-29 04:01:39
On the first Memorial Day – in 1868, shortly after the Civil War – volunteers decorated the graves of Union soldiers with flowers.
The tradition lives on at Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood, where for more than a decade Ruben Rocha has organized a group of volunteers who place red and white carnations at veterans’ graves on the Sunday before Memorial Day.
This year, about 150 volunteers placed about 50,000 pairs of carnations at the cemetery, Rocha said.
The red carnations symbolize the spilled blood of soldiers; the white ones represent the “peace” they have achieved.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s all worth it at the end of the day,” says Rocha, 67, director of studio operations at Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City.
Ed Henneberque, 73, pays his respects.
(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
Rocha’s family has a long history in the military.
He served as an infantryman in the Marines from 1975 to 1984. His older brother Robert Salas Rocha was an infantryman in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and died on a reconnaissance mission in 1970. Their oldest brother, Rudy, was also a Vietnam War veteran, artilleryman.
Both Rudy, who passed away in 2018, and Robert are buried in the cemetery, Ruben said.
“This place means a lot to me and my family,” he said of the cemetery, with its thousands of plain, white headstones, visible from the 405 Freeway. “I now consider all of these men and women buried here as part of our extended family.”
Ruben started the volunteer group 12 years ago with about 1,000 pairs of carnations. In 2019, the group was large enough to cover the more than 80,000 headstones in the cemetery.
The pandemic halted work in 2020 and 2021. But Rocha said the group is growing again and his colleagues at Sony are inviting others to volunteer.
Vickie Lou Miller, 10, and cousin Robert Rocha.
(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
“We also invite their children to come in,” he said. “Because I believe it’s a great learning time for them so they can understand why we live in a free country that we live in.”
Sony and NBCUniversal are among the companies that helped pay for the carnations, which cost more than $15,000 this year, Rocha said.
He instructs the volunteers to read each name at the grave as they deliver the flowers and to thank the soldiers for their service.
The volunteers quickly become addicted.
“If I can get you here one day,” he said, “you’ll come back every year after that, I promise.”
