Masonicare Honors Community Veterans

By Kendra Bobowick

A distant horn cried Taps. Veterans living at Masonicare of Newtown, Jack Rosenthal and Nick Kostuk sat beneath a wreath of red, white, and blue flowers during the facility’s first Memorial Day Picnic and ceremony Wednesday, May 23. With them were a handful of other residents, veterans, and guests from the public, including First Selectman Pat Llodra.

“We’re preserving their memory and their sacrifice and service,” Mrs Llodra said of fallen veterans. “They gave up for us the life they were living; they gave up growing old with their loved ones.” They lost their lives so that “we could live our lives,” she said.

Without veterans, “our lives would be very, very different,” she said, and thanked not only past veterans, but those currently serving this country. Sadly, she noted that many of the service men and women coming home today “populate the ranks of the unemployed and homeless.” She reminded the community, “We have an obligation to them for the years they spent.” She also asked that at 3 pm Monday, May 28, Memorial Day, which is the “official recognition of our war dead,” we remember those who died or those who returned, and honor them.

Judi Ann Lausier of Masonicare at Newtown later greeted Mr Rosenthal, a former first selectman in Newtown, and other veterans, explaining, “We wanted to give our resident veterans and veterans in the community to know we recognize them.”