The Philadelphia Protestant Home, 6401 Martins Mill Road, hosted its annual Memorial Day observance on Monday.
Bill Conaway, PPH’s director of community relations, was the emcee, with residents playing a big part in the ceremony.
Pastor Ken Smith offered an invocation and benediction. Jim Walker played Taps. Mary McCurdy placed a wreath. Her husband, Lester, was an Army veteran who died in March. Audrey Alston led the crowd in a rendition of America the Beautiful.
State Rep. Jared Solomon noted that Memorial Day began in 1868, adding that the holiday is a reminder of the cost of a free and undivided republic.
Security guards Ryan Donaghy and Jorge Rodriguez, a 27-year military veteran, raised the American flag.
Conaway explained the significance of the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action table, a place of honor set for one, and read the war poem In Flanders Fields. Phil Grutzmacher, a 102-year-old resident, generally reads the poem from memory, but was unable to attend.
PPH executive assistant Kathy Wersinger read a poem, and discussed her memorable 2017 Bucks County Tour of Honor trip to Washington, D.C. with then-PPH president and CEO Anthony Manzo and a group of veterans. ••
