Maine author Boomsma releases new book honoring the true meaning of Memorial Day

ABBOT — Abbot Village Press announces the release of “Memorials, Monuments, and Memories: From Flanders Fields to Main Street America”, a new book by Maine author and essayist Walter Boomsma. Drawing on more than a decade of annual Memorial Day writings, the book invites readers to rediscover the deeper meaning of the holiday — one memory, monument and human story at a time.

Boomsma’s connection to Memorial Day runs deep. His father, a Navy veteran and proud honor guard sergeant, died when the author was seven. The traditions they shared — cleaning the flag holder at his grandfather’s grave, polishing rifles for the honor guard, standing at attention as taps was played — shaped a lifelong commitment to remembrance. The book’s essays, originally shared one per year, trace those memories alongside wider reflections on what it means to preserve the past for those who come after.

“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it,” Boomsma writes, quoting L. M. Montgomery — a sentiment that anchors the entire collection. The essays range from visits to the Normandy American Cemetery to a small-town Maine parade growing shorter each year; from the history of the poppy tradition to the quiet work of cleaning forgotten gravestones. Together they make a case that Memorial Day belongs to all of us — as long as we show up for it.

“Having fun honors them. They died so we could,” Boomsma wrote.

The collection is organized chronologically, spanning Memorial Days from 2012 through 2025, with each essay bearing the year it was first written. Two classic public-domain poems — John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” and Moina Michael’s response “We Shall Keep the Faith” — open the book as touchstones for return visits. A closing section, “Beyond Memorial Day,” celebrates the human connections the holiday inspires, including an award-winning fishing story about Boomsma’s father that has been called a moving meditation on grief, independence and love.

Boomsma is the author of “Small People – Big Brains and Exploring Traditions: Celebrating the Grange Way of Life”. A former consultant in individual and organizational development, he lives with his wife Janice, in rural Maine. His writing career began, by his own account, with letters to his grandmother.

“Memorials, Monuments, and Memories: From Flanders Fields to Main Street America” is  available from major retailers including Amazon. Ordering options are at wboomsma.com.