Memorial Day ceremonies are already underway across the Rio Grande Valley to honor fallen service members.

More than 50 people volunteered on Saturday to help clean headstones at Weslaco's City Cemetery.

Sophia Gonzalez, 12, spent her morning at the cemetery cleaning and scrubbing grave markers. She says her parents suggested the idea in recognition of Memorial Day.

"In the past, I would treat Memorial Day as a day off from school and then after finding out what it actually meant and being here today, it made me realized the importance of Memorial Day to honor those who we have lost in wars," Sophia said.

Sophia's 18-year-old sister, Athena, joined her in walking through the cemetery looking for the headstones of those served in the armed forces.

"Some of the graves we went and cleaned, they were about my age and it was shocking because I don't think I would be brave enough to do something like that, I really don't," Athena said. "I'm lucky to be here because so many of them aren't."

Athena said what started as a family activity turned into a powerful reminder of the sacrifices made for their freedoms.

"It's one of those things you don't think about on your day to day, you know, the freedoms that we have is often taken for granted," Athena said. "Probably going to take the day and go home and really think about a lot of things."

And just like the Gonzalez family, others came to clean up graves and honor the fallen for their ultimate sacrifice.

A sacrifice that Dora Hernandez thinks about daily.

"I've been doing this of a long time, but I never thought I would be doing it in honor of him," Hernandez said.

Out of the 130 honored today, 18 were killed in action. Hernandez's husband, Navy sailor Noe Hernandez, was one of them.

"We were high school sweethearts. We spent a lot of our Memorial Days doing this because we volunteer with JROTC. He always knew he wanted to join the military," Hernandez said.

Their son was three years old when Noe died at sea after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off the coast of Japan in 2017.

"As a spouse, I pictured my life with him. I signed up to live this life along his side, to raise a kid along his side, but due to faith or circumstances, I'm here without him," Hernandez said. "[My son] is aware of that relationship with his father, it's still there, that bond is not broken just because he's not around."

In his honor, she organizes this Memorial Day remembrance, so others can come together to remember and pay their respects.

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