Memorial Day services at the Boca Raton Cemetery proceeded under sunny skies on Monday as veterans, students and families gathered to honor America’s fallen war dead and veterans who risked their lives for the freedom Americans enjoy. “I am in the best city in the United States because they honor their veterans,” Sherman Woods of Boca Raton said after the ceremony with hundreds of miniature flags fluttering in the background in the field of green grass. “You know we have Veterans Day, which is for all of us veterans, but Memorial Day is for the guys who didn’t come home. I’ve had two tours in Iraq and I had 19 boys that didn’t get to come home. This is what this day is for, for me.” The annual Memorial Day event in the cemetery lasted an hour as attendees congregated in front of a monument dedicated to all men and women who served in the armed forces. Among the dignitaries were Mayor Susan Whelchel, Vice Mayor Susan Haynie, Council members Constance J. Scott and Michael Mullaugh and Palm Beach County Mayor Steven Abrams. Senior citizens stood with help from their canes and toddlers stood with help from their parents as the distinctive sound of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” filled the morning air. Norman Rockwell couldn’t have painted a more patriotic scene While the scene was Rockwellian, the message was simple: Honor those who serve. This message of remembrance has been tarnished in recent years by the prevalence of shopping sales and barbecues, said Bobbi George, a whose husband retired from the US Marine Corps after 25 years, “Memorial Day is not a day for commercialization,” George said. “It’s a day to pay respect and pay honor to those who’ve been in or are in the armed service.”