Cathedral of the Pines Memorial Day ceremony includes talk of life and loss

On Friday afternoon, the Cathedral of the Pines held a ceremony in honor of Memorial Day, recognizing the sacrifices of United States soldiers.

Mariner Staff Sgt. Timothy Prevost was the ceremony’s guest speaker. Prevost, a resident of Rindge, has been deployed in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and as part of a crisis response to Africa, and has served as a reservist, including an instructor in jungle-warfare training overseas.

Prevost was a last-minute speaker for the ceremony. Originally scheduled was Paul Vincent, who was expected to speak about the execution of the D-Day campaign in honor of the 80th anniversary. Vincent was unavailable due to illness, and Prevost admitted his first instinct was to say no when asked to step in.

Prevost is the business manager for the Jaffrey VFW, and a Marine Corps reservist. The day after the service, he was scheduled to report for his reservist duty in Hartford, Conn., at 5 a.m. and drive back to New Hampshire in the afternoon, heading into a work shift that wouldn’t end until 1 a.m. He has charge of his 10-month-old daughter during daylight working hours, and had a commitment to help his late best friend’s father scrape the paint off his house.

“I thought, ‘How could I possibly find the time? I’m exhausted, burnt out, and I just don’t have the bandwidth to write a speech. My uniform’s a mess, and I haven’t even prepped it,’” Prevost said. “Then I stopped. Because in that moment, a deeper truth hit me.”

That truth was, Prevost said, that he has a long list of friends and fellow servicemen that would love to be watching their children, running their businesses, reporting for duty or helping their dad with chores. But they’re no longer here.

“But I’m here. I get to feel stressed, I get to feel tired. I get to hold my daughter and complain about sleep and laundry and work. Because I’m here,” Prevost said.

Memorial Day is about remembering those who are lost, and the sacrifices they made so that others could have those privileges.

“But on Memorial Day, we’re reminded, there are those who would give anything to feel overwhelmed again. To feel frustration, to face a long day, to wake up at 5 a.m. for work or to try to calm a screaming baby in the backseat,” Prevost said. “They would trade eternity for one more mundane moment, because that’s what life is — 1,000 ordinary, beautiful, fleeting moments.”

Prevost said honoring that means living our lives, “Not with bitterness, but with purpose. Not with complaint, but with gratitude. Not with indifference, but with honor. Because we are here, and they are not.”

The ceremony was concluded with a firing salute given by the Rindge Veterans Association Honor Guard, and a playing of “Taps” on the bugle by David Pipitone.

A dedication to a World War II veteran

This year’s ceremony was dedicated to the memory of Richard Hamilton, an Air Force veteran from Brattleboro, Vt., who died in January at the age of 101.

Hamilton’s connection to the Cathedral of the Pines is memorialized in his donation to the cathedral’s World War II Museum of a B-17 Bomber. Its the same kind of plane that Hamilton flew during World War II, named “Destiny Child,” where Hamilton served as a radio operator. His plane was shot down on July 20, 1944, during its ninth mission.

Hamilton and four other members of the nine-man crew survived, and spent nine months in the Stalag Luft IV prison before being able to  return home on July 8, 1945. A month after returning home, Hamilton married Joyce White, and the couple had four daughters. He ran a restaurant on Hogback Mountain on Route 2 in Marlboro, Vt..

Members of the Rindge Veterans Association folded a flag to present to Hamilton’s daughters after the ceremony’s dedication.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.