Addison Guerrero is anxiously preparing for a rite of passage into adulthood: her driving test.
So Sunday began like many days recently, with a practice run with his mother Patti Talbot and brother Aiden Guerrero, 14.
However, this trip took her back to the story. She transported her family, down the highway no less, to visit the Los Angeles National Cemetery and the grave of her great-great-grandfather Roy D. Dolen. Born April 24, 1895, Dolen served as a farrier during World War I, when automobiles were rare and men like him traveled to distant lands to calm animals while bombs exploded around them.
Brothers Aiden and Addison Guerrero clean the graves surrounding their ancestor.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Now Guerrero was face down next to his brother, cleaning his tombstone and the graves of his “neighbors” with a toothbrush. His grandfather and grandmother Brad and Chris Talbot, both 73, started this tradition about 50 years ago. They know very little about Roy's wartime service, but describe him as a quiet man who later traveled with the carnival and was one of Disneyland's first employees.
“I can't imagine how scared those horses must have been,” Brad said as he cut the grass around the marble stone with a pair of garden shears.
Patti Talbot, from left, Brad Talbot, Addison Guerrero, Chris Talbot and Aiden Guerrero clean the graves of their relatives' “neighbors.”
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
His wife Chris, Roy's granddaughter, wore a cowboy hat adorned with an American flag and looked on. Brad has been accompanying her to the cemetery since they started dating in the early 1970s and she is “happy to train the next generation.” The couple owned a Corvette and joined a club where they learned that the best way to keep its details clean was with a toothbrush.
He can't explain in words why the activity gives him so much satisfaction, other than as a bond with his parents, who also passed away. The family placed three bouquets of flowers they bought at Ralph's next to Dolen's grave.
They also placed a single bouquet on the grave next to Dolen's. The family likes to say that Dolen and his neighbor are friends. Maybe they knew each other. So they clear the grass and also remove the mulch from those graves. They then look for the only other farrier they found in the cemetery and clean his grave as well.
Oliver Kay, captain of the Army civil affairs unit, spends time with his twin sons Xavier and Max, left and center, straightening flags on graves and chatting about American history at the Los Angeles National Cemetery on Sunday.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Memorial Day weekend includes big band performances and other events at the cemetery. Hundreds of volunteers came out Saturday to place flags in front of each grave and recreate the Rough Riders of the Spanish-American War. Monday's festivities will include speeches from elected officials and other notable guests. But the gray and cold Sunday morning was filled with quiet moments as loved ones reconnected and strangers contemplated the sacrifices endured by so many service men and women.
Oliver Kay wore his army green service uniform as he knelt next to his twin sons Max and Xavier. Kay had served six years in the British Army and then joined the US Army, where after 14 years he now serves as a captain in a civil affairs unit. His children asked him “which of my friends who died are buried here.”
He told them that they were not buried here but in distant tombs around the world. The visit to the cemetery awakens the curiosity of her children. Surrounded by so many stories, her interest in history, she said, will only grow.
Scott Sargent, who works security at the Los Angeles National Cemetery, looks over the grave of his relative, Lewis L. Owens, on Sunday.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Security guard Scott Sargent, 59, is amazed by these military men and women who come from places like Syria, China and Ukraine. He is equally impressed by the variety of jobs performed by the deceased, whether balloonist, chauffeur or mechanic. But what gives the former Cudahy police officer the most satisfaction is when he runs into someone looking for a loved one or when a flag falls.
The little help you can offer when you reset a fallen flag makes your day.
From time to time he stops at two graves with less traffic. One is on the south side of the cemetery, near a spot where a large oak tree once stood in the late 1960s.
Lewis L. Owens
Pennsylvania
US Army Sgt.
SECOND WORLD WAR
SEPTEMBER 16, 1920 – AUGUST 6, 1968
He remembers visiting as a child to see his stepfather's grave.
“There are so many wonderful lives here,” she said, “including yours.”
