Here we are, in the midst of a three-day weekend that serves for many as the end of the school year and the beginning of summer.

For some, it will be their first getaway of the season. For others, it will be the weekend on which they open their pool.

But for some, it will be the day on which they remember and honor loved ones lost in service to their country.

That is, after all the reason for Monday’s observance.

For 155 years our nation has paused for just this one day each year to honor and grieve the men and women who have died while serving in the armed forces.

Those who were brave and honorable — driven by duty and patriotism, were also sons and daughters — someone’s family, someone’s friend.

Some of them saved the world, others struggled in conflicts that still boil.

But no matter where or when they served, the fact remains they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the rest of us.

We owe them at least a pause to understand we splash in our pools and break out our grills this weekend because they were willing to die to ensure we are safe and free to do so.

But, as President Franklin Roosevelt said, “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”

How fortunate we are to have the luxury of that forgetting. But not all of us.

On Memorial Day some will feel a fresh sting. We owe our gratitude not only to those who fought generations ago, but to those men and women still today who are fighting and dying. And they will not be the last.

There are plenty of opportunities around Eastern Ohio this weekend to attend an observance where you can join others who are recalling those sacrifices. There will be parades and services at cemeteries and at some city centers.

Stop for just a moment before returning to your holiday festivities to remember them — so very many of them — and to whisper the least of what they deserve: “Thank you.”