My annual pilgrimage (but yours can be much closer to home)

It’s Veterans Day, and I hope you’ll take a moment to recognize—and thank—a veteran you know for their service.

As for me, today’s an annual pilgrimage. I fly to Georgia to visit my dad, a Vietnam vet and torpedo man who served during the conflict and now rests at a veterans cemetery just outside Atlanta.

My mom and I have a tradition: catch an early flight, drive to the cemetery, and leave a challenge coin on his headstone. Then it’s off to Yeero Village for some of the best Greek food around.

Why Yeero Village? Not just the souvlaki and Greek potatoes —though, yes. The owners are also property folks who trace their story from Greece to New York (shoutout to the old Executive Diner in Hawthorne!) to Georgia. So it’s a meal wrapped in family and legacy.

After that, we stop by the Johns Creek Veterans Memorial Walk, where my dad has a bench and a couple of bricks laid in his honor. Then we race back to the airport, aiming to get home in time to kiss the kids goodnight—or at least catch them mid-dream.

If you’re staying local today, the Lower East Side has its own quiet places to reflect and pay respects. Here are three worth visiting:

Straus Square – East Broadway & Rutgers Street
Dedicated in 1953 “to the men and women of the Lower East Side who served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.”

Stop by en route to Elbow Bread or Michaeli Bakery and give the granite column a moment of your time—it stands silently, holding generations of LES history.

Our Lady of Sorrows Church – 105 Pitt Street
A bronze plaque on this 19th-century parish lists nearly 200 parishioners who served during WWII.

It’s humble, but powerful—a testament from an immigrant congregation that helped shape the city it called home. A reminder that service knows no borders or background.

Kimlau War Memorial – Chatham Square
A short stroll from Straus Square brings you to this granite ceremonial arch, honoring Chinese-American soldiers who died serving the U.S.

Designed by Poy Gum Lee in 1962 and named after Lt. Benjamin R. Kimlau, a pilot shot down over New Guinea in 1944, it’s both a memorial and a bridge—between cultures, between neighborhoods.

So wherever you find yourself today—LES, Atlanta, or somewhere in between—take a moment. Stop. Look. Remember. And to the veterans among us: thank you for your service.