Perspective: A grieving family's first Memorial Day

William Mason Sigua

Ben Sigua stood near the grassy slope in Golden Gate National Cemetery on Monday contemplating his first Memorial Day without his son, William, who was buried nearby, the sod still fresh on his grave.

"It means a lot to us," Sigua said of attending the cemetery's annual commemoration. "This is the first time we've been to a Memorial Day service. Memorial Day is not going to be the same again."

His wife, Jackie, and sons David and Jon and Jon's wife, Kara, had all driven to the San Bruno military cemetery from the Sigua home in Los Altos Hills.

Friends were there, too - dozens of friends of U.S. Army Sgt. William Mason Sigua, "son, brother, hero," and just 21 when he was killed Jan. 31 after his company came under fire in Iraq. They were all finding their way, honoring for the first time on Memorial Day a man they loved so much that they could hardly express their sentiments in words.

And they came to remember the hundreds of thousands of others who died fighting in wars throughout the history of the United States.

"Since it's so recent," William's brother David, 29, said, "It's kind of like every day is sort of like this."

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