photo by Paul Fixx
HARDWICK – Memorial Day ceremonies for Hardwick’s American Legion Post 7 began downtown as an honor guard and several dozen community members marched to the North Main Street.bridge over the Lamoille River. There post Chaplain Lynn Sweetser-Bessette prayed for departed comrades and a wreath was deposited into the Lamoille River by Post Sergeant and former Post Commander Lou Furry as “a token of our enduring memory.”
photo by Paul Fixx
Chaplain Sweetser-Bessette’s remarks asked those gathered to “remember with reverence the valor and devotion of our departed comrades” wherever they lay.
photo by Paul Fixx
The march continued on North Main Street to the Memorial Park where Post Commander Bradley Slayton stood on the monument there offering remarks. “AgaIn our nation has assembled to honor its heroic dead. On this Memorial day let us pledge ourselves anew to patriotic service. Let us make ourselves the friend and brother, sister, son, daughter, father and mother, of those who will not see their own again in mortal flesh. . . Let us stand with bowed heads in solemn memory of our heroic dead.”
photo by Paul Fixx
Chaplain Sweetser-Bessette added her comments, then a salute was fired by the Legion Honor Guard and a bugler played “Taps.”
photo by Paul Fixx
Legion members and the honor guard then went to visit the town’s cemeteries and the private family cemetery where past Post Commander Willie McAllister, who died in the past year, on December 10, 2025, lies.
photo by Paul Fixx
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
