'It's just a beautiful experience': Servicemen and women honored with lovingly placed wreaths
Dec. 17—James Mize. Robert Cazzell. Joshua Lewis. Francisco Rodriguez.
Families reverently placed balsam fir wreaths topped with red bows Saturday at Bakersfield National Cemetery for these individuals and others to remember their full lives and military service. Roughly 8,000 people buried in plains carved into rolling hills had a family member, volunteer or friend honor them during a nationwide commemoration known as Wreaths Across America.
Fog didn't shroud the area — as it did other areas of Kern County — as hundreds paused for a moment of silence under the cloudless sky to recognize those interred. Wind sounded over snowcapped peaks as if heaven itself voiced approval of the day's activities.
"I feel his presence more here than I do any place else," Julie Castaneda, 53, said of her father, James Mize, a Vietnam vet.
Mize, 73, died two years ago Saturday from health problems he developed while deployed, she explained.
"I could not think of a more honorable way to remember him" than to bury him at Bakersfield National Cemetery, Castaneda added as tears flooded her eyes.
Many veterans didn't have family members or friends alive or present Saturday to say their name out loud in a flicker of remembrance. So, volunteers filled their arms with wreaths to ensure it happened.
Vicky and Bill Lewis gently placed a wreath at their son's grave but loaded up on additional ones handed out by Young Marines and children. Son Joshua Lewis died by suicide after serving in the U.S. Air Force.
"As time passes on, people forget," Bill Lewis said as walked to the graves. "And so when you bring up a person's name, you hope it'll stay in the front of your mind."
That's what Nick McQuay did as he stood in front of a name, his face creased in pain and remembrance. He served in Vietnam as a Marine and came out Saturday to honor nobody in particular. Even so, it's the Vietnam servicemen and women who he can personally relate to and thinks about when placing a wreath.
"I can see the expression on their faces in boot camp," McQuay said. "How they hated Vietnam."
"Where were they from?" McQuay wonders when saying the name. "What was their family like?"
Families stood silently weeping or exchanged tales of their family members. Others cleaned a headstone until it became white as snow while lovingly tracing their loved one's name.
"It's just a beautiful experience to honor those who have served for us," said Lacey Krull, 42, as she remembered her stepfather, Jeffrey Lawrence Boydstun. He served in the Marines.
Fatine Calvillo and her mother, Christy, walked through rows of graves and explained that her late great-grandfather served in World War II. Fatine hoped he would beam with pride if he watched her do something like this.
"Doing this makes me feel a little closer to him" because she never got a chance to meet him, she added.
But, it's more than that.
"Not only do I feel thankful," Fatine, 14, added. "But, I feel like (the buried veterans) are thankful that we are doing this."
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
