She Honored 60 Veterans Whose Families Couldn’t Visit Arlington National Cemetery
Emily Domenech only planned to honor one person during her visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day: her late grandfather, John Domenech, a career Army officer who fought in three wars. But by the time the cemetery closed Monday, she had honored 60 fallen veterans at their gravesites, on behalf of families across the country who couldn’t be there in person.
Following social-distancing guidelines put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic, Arlington National Cemetery marked Memorial Day differently this year than usual. While the holiday weekend typically draws more than 135,000 visitors, the cemetery was limited to just the families of buried veterans. The cemetery has been closed to the public since mid-March, when Virginia’s statewide shutdown order went into effect.
