Despite suffering a stroke in March that forces her to rely on a walker, Harriet Beekman attended the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Fairview Park City Hall Monday morning.

Beekman, who founded the We Do Care committee which supports American servicemen and women, was greeted with applause by the assembled crowd of about 40 when she entered the foyer of City Hall.

Anne Tullos, whose son, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Mark Richard Tullos, 37, died in February of injuries sustained during a training accident, joined Gold Star Mothers Loretta Seidl and Maria Sarossy in laying a wreath at the war memorial in City Hall. Seidl’s son Robert, a member of the U.S. Army, was killed in Germany during the Vietnam era; and Sarossy’s son Steven, a Marine, was killed in Vietnam.

Master Sgt. Erick N. Lupson of the Air Force Reserve, featured speaker at the ceremony, reminded Americans that freedom is not free.

“Like American wars before it, Iraq and Afghanistan have made that abundantly clear,” said Lupson, a Fairview resident who works at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. “Americans, and more specifically Ohioans, again have put their lives on the line in the current war against terrorism.”

Lupson also recalled the loss of 48 servicemen last year serving in Iraq with the Brook Park-based 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment.

“Their sacrifice last summer helped to redefine for many of us the true meaning of courage when put in harm’s way,” he said.

Americans can pay tribute to the nation’s war dead by remaining dedicated to this nation’s principles, Lupson said.

“We, our children after us, must be devoted to those principles for which these heroic citizens gave their lives,” he said. “By holding fast to the same principles they cherished, and by teaching our children about our country’s history and the vital role veterans played in making history possible, we begin to repay this debt. We gain strength from what they did, from their devotion, their patriotism, and are inspired to honor the cause for which they died.”

In her remarks, Mayor Eileen Patton recited the names of seven Fairview Park soldiers killed in action.

“The freedom that we Americans at times take for granted did not come without pain,” Patton said. “(It was) paid for with the souls of the American servicemen and women, with the tears of the moms and dads and the brothers and the sisters whose lives were changed forever.”

Later at ceremonies at Fairview Park Cemetery, Jim Babitsky, a retired Marine and commander of American Legion Post 738, recalled the carnage he witnessed during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War.

“I watched people die. I watched people live,” he told the gathering. “Some of the people we were able to save, some we couldn’t. Some of the people I helped carry the body bags and put them on a helicopter. For some, I held their hands while they died.”

Babitsky asked the younger persons in the crowd to find out from older family members if any veterans in their family lost their lives  during war.