Hollister Councilman Ray Friend stood in front of a small crowd
of veterans and residents Monday with tears streaming down his
face. Friend could only muster a few words during the Memorial Day
presentation in front of the Veterans Memorial Building, but many
expressed the same words.
Hollister Councilman Ray Friend stood in front of a small crowd of veterans and residents Monday with tears streaming down his face. Friend could only muster a few words during the Memorial Day presentation in front of the Veterans Memorial Building, but many expressed the same words.
“I want to thank everyone for coming out,” he said, wearing veterans hat and jacket. “I have a hard time on days like this … Thanks everyone from coming out.”
As one of eight speakers, Friend helped commemorate soldiers who lost their lives in service. Alongside the speakers was a small but attentive collection of Hollister veterans and residents gathered in front of the building on Monday during the city’s culmination of Memorial Day activities.
The emotional 30-minute presentation, which started around 11:40 a.m. with a flyover, finished with a five-rifle salute and a band playing “Taps.” It also included a wreath-laying ceremony on the stones in front of the Veterans Memorial Building.
Speakers included Post 9242 Senior Vice Commander Jesse Garza, who opened up the ceremony, Supervisor Margie Barrios, Sgt. Allan Beckwith and military wife Loretta Avina.
“My Memorial Day will never again be about barbeques, beaches and having fun. Forevermore it will be about the sacrifice of those that served this country,” Avina said.
Comparing her past with her thoughts about the holiday now, Avina said getting older brings more than gray hair and wrinkles.
“As I got older I started to wise up to what the day meant,” she said. “Today I remember the soldiers that lost their lives.”
Looking at past of Memorial Day festivities, Barrios believed it was the soldiers’ sacrifice that gave the country its freedoms.
Beckwith believed that the world, and the city of Hollister, would be vastly different if it wasn’t for the veterans and the soldiers lost at war.
“It’s given us the opportunity for us to live our lives,” he said.
The final speech belonged to Joe Love, who listed the total number of American soldiers lost during wartime since 1775. With more than 1.5 million lives lost, Love said they fought for the American way of life.
