Memorial Beer

Four unopened bottles of Budweiser beer sat two abreast on top of the cement wall.

I’d left my daughter, Kizzie Marie, playing fetch in the Oregon Pacific Ocean surf with her lab Roxie. Dachshund Nikki and I approached the nearby Rockaway Beach Park for a rest when this unusual sight caught my attention.

Curious, I sat down on a nearby bench. Gradually, my eyes moved down from the brown glass bottles to a bronze plaque with five emblems representing the five branches of the US military. Below them was the inscription: “In memory of those who gave their lives in service to our country.”

Four unopened bottles of Budweiser beer. It made me take pause.

I thought of my late CH-47-helicopter-pilot husband and how he enjoyed sharing flight and mission stories with his Chinook buddies over bottles of Budweiser and Coors.

It occurred to me that service members—retired and/or active duty—had come here to this wall to honor their fallen comrades. They were not only remembered—they were included in the next round.

A young couple backpacking the Oregon coast stopped to rest and noticed the beer. They wondered aloud why the beer was there. I shared my theory. They stopped their chatting and took pause.

​Soon another family stopped by to brush off sand from the beach. Three generations had gathered for the first time since the COVID shutdowns. Parents from Pennsylvania flew across country to be with their son and grandson. They pondered among themselves about the beer. Again, I shared my thoughts. Simultaneously, they stopped and took pause.

An unassuming wall with a bronze plaque much darkened from the passage of time, accentuated by bottles of beer, had brought those fallen back to life, even if only briefly, as we took a moment to pause and remember.