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Photo by Steve Johnson Dara Gomez, 26, center, helps two of her three children -- Christiana, 7, and Lucas, 18 months -- place flowers on her grandparents' graves. The White City family spent part of Sunday at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Medford. Many pause to honor loved ones By JONEL ALECCIA Medford - Christiana Gomez only dimly remembers her great-grandfather, and she doesn't recall her great-grandmother at all. But that didn't stop the 7-year-old White City girl from paying tribute to her elders Sunday, bringing flowers, pinecones and fond wishes to grace their final resting place. "This is just to set aside a time to think about them," explained Christiana's mother, Dara Gomez, 26. The young mother also brought Felicia, 3, and Lucas, 18 months, to visit the graves of her grandparents, Otha and Christine Looper, at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Medford. The Gomez family is among thousands of Rogue Valley residents remembering lost loved ones this Memorial Day. Cemeteries across Jackson County sported flags and flowers left by folks who mark the holiday as more than just a three-day weekend. For John B. Pruett, for instance, Sunday's stop at the IOOF Eastwood Cemetery in Medford was part of a tradition that traces his kin through several Rogue Valley graveyards. Armed with bleach and a scrub brush, the 45-year-old Medford man cleaned moss from the headstone of his great-grandparents, John W. and Effie B. Pruett. He was accompanied by his wife, Annie, 39, and their 9-year-old son, Kramer. Pruett, 45, knows where six generations of family members are buried dating back to 1872, and he wants his boy to know, too. "I want him to know what it's like to have roots and family and what the generations mean," Pruett says. "Some kids, you ask about their grandparents and that's all they know." Nearby, at Siskiyou Memorial Park, flags fluttered in the bright spring sun as Maxine Bostock unloaded vases of home-grown roses from the trunk of her car. The 1946 graduate of Medford High School drives down every year from her Springfield home to place flowers on 14 family graves. "My husband is here and my parents and grandparents," she explains. For Bostock, decorating the graves is a comforting ritual. "To me, it's a way of saying `I remember you,"' she says. "I come here and I think of things I should have done when they were alive. I say `thank you,' to them here and I hope they hear it."' Many of those honored are the veterans for whom the holiday was created. Memorial Day was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers after the Civil War. Now, most U.S. states set aside the last Monday in May in memory of those who died in military service. But wistful recollections aren't limited to veterans. Craig Selleck, 35, of Medford, was moved to spend a few moments at the grave of his friend, Steve Heffner, at Hillcrest Memorial Park. Heffner was 44 when he died last December of a sudden heart attack. "He was my best friend," Selleck said. "The flags are out and everything. I've just been thinking about him." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA