The start of a cemetery tradition

Kevin and Teresa Welsh of New Egypt brought their son Noah, 15, to mark Veterans Day at Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in North Hanover Township, Burlington County.

Kevin, a member of the N.J. Army National Guard's 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team - he just returned recently from deployment in the Pacific - asked Noah how the school observed the day.

"I asked what they did in school today, and he said, 'Nothing.' " So the elder Welsh said, "We're going to take us some flags."

The Welshes don't have anyone buried there, but joined those who did, walking the cemetery hills and reading the grave markers and planting flags.

Along the way they met Therese Hall, 93, of Jacksonville, at the grave site of her husband, Paul Edwards Hall. The family listened to Hall's story for a half-hour, as she shared how as 19-year-old Therese Legoux of Evreux, Normandy, she met Paul shortly after he arrived in France on D-Day.

They were married and moved to New Jersey after the war. He was with the Army Air Corps, and when it later became the U.S. Air Force, he served again in both Korea and Vietnam.

Paul died on Nov. 15, 1987, a week shy of his 77th birthday. Therese Hall had visited his grave weekly but lately it's been just monthly.

The Welshes took pictures, exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and promised to get together for more stories.

- Tom Gralish