Her hand rested on the marker and her head hung low when Lemira Hinson visited her husband’s grave at the Jacksonville National Cemetery on Monday.
"He really loved the military,” Hinson said.
Willie Hinson died in 2008. He served in Europe and North Africa during WWII, but his wife remembers a softer side to the fighter.
“I miss how he cared for me,” Hinson said. “He was concerned about me and he always had something good to tell me.”
She hopes everyone enjoyed the day off and spent it enjoying the company of friends and family, but she hopes First Coast families remember what Memorial Day is all about.
"We should always remember, that we are safe and we're free because of the work and the service they put in the military,” Hinson said.