She wasn’t a soldier firing a weapon. She was a caregiver who dedicated her life to saving the lives of others. Inside the casket these soldiers are bearing (left) is the body of Captain Maria Ortiz. Captain Ortiz was the first nurse killed as the result of hostile fire in the Iraq War when, in 2007, a mortar round fell into the Baghdad hospital where she was caring for wounded Iraqis.
   Her friend, Wanda Shuler said about Maria, "She was really proud of the fact she was over there taking care of our
soldiers, trying to make the situation they were going through a little
easier."
   Maria is the kind of caregiver we all want to remember on this Memorial Day. Her life can serve to represent, for all of us, the lives of every caregiver ever killed seeking to heal others in the midst of war…

  Maria was described as the kind of caregiver whose smile lit up a room. We may reflect on the power of that smile as we glance at the image of her, left, at a happy moment in her life.
   Clara Barton, the caregiver known as the"Angel of the Battlefield" and the founder of The Red Cross, understood the need for caregivers to take risks in the context of the Civil War. Memorial Day was initiated in 1868 to recognize those who had fallen in that war. All these wars later, we pause again, on this day, to reflect on the sacrifice so many have made for us.
   Today,for example, I think of my great grandfather, Harlan Chapman, wounded by a Confederate bullet in 1864; and of his brother, Degrasse (my middle name) who died on the bloody fields of Antietam after lying wounded for three days. If only a caregiver could have been present for him. And I think of my cousin, Harlan, who was a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam for seven years.
   Each Memorial Day, some of us ask anew, have we learned anything yet? Do we appreciate the freedom won for us by those who have given their lives on our behalf? And have our leaders yet come to recognize what they do when they commit soldiers to battle? A cartoon in today’s paper challenges us to reflect on the real meaning of this day.
   Maria was the kind of caregiver anyone would want at their bedside. Today, some of us join with Maria’s mother and husband in mourning Maria’s death. We honor the gift of service she gave to strangers, foreigners to her in a land where she was a foreigner. A place where she gave them the gift of Love before her own life was taken by those committed to violence.

-Erie Chapman