American Legion Post 54 of Wiscasset Cmdr. William Cossette Jr. told a Memorial Day gathering, wife Melissa “Missy” Cossette had an uncle who died in the Normandy invasion. And Cmdr. Cossette said, thanks to the couple’s friend Wally Pitcher, Missy, last summer, “got closure. And that meant a lot.”

Cmdr. Cossette – in his remarks and afterward with reporters – and Missy Cossette, in a phone interview later, explained her uncle Arthur L. Coffin was in his 30s and single when he decided to join the service. When he died, his family was notified immediately; Missy was not born yet. “So I never got to meet the man, but growing up I always heard about him.” And she later learned he was buried at Omaha Beach. 

The Cossettes said Pitcher last summer was going on a cruise that included a stop at Normandy. Cmdr. Cossette told Monday’s gathering, early in the cruise Pitcher told the cruise director about wanting to go to the cemetery. The cruise director spoke no more with him about it, until that stop, when he told Pitcher, ‘‘There’s two people on the wharf, waiting for you,” Cmdr. Cossette said. “So they took him right to the cemetery, and they went down to  (the) grave. And he took pictures and they had a ceremony, and presented him with the American flag and a French flag.

“Then they took him down to the beach and gave him a little jar, and he came home with a sample of the sand from the beach,” Cmdr. Cossette added.

Missy Cossette said she now has the flags, part of a commemorative package Pitcher brought back from the cruise. And the jar of sand? “It’s in the window at my sink,” she said.

Memorial Day morning was gray and misty for the observance at the veterans’ wall at Routes One and 27. It was the Post’s first holiday observance there since the town fixed the walkway, and made it go all the way around the wall, which on both sides has the names of Wiscasset residents who have served. Now with the walkway all around it, there is no back of the wall; there’s the other side of the wall, Cossette said. 

Know of someone whose name should be added? “Let us know,” Cossette said.

Wiscasset’s Peter Fogg, attending with wife Teresa, had on an “Honor Flight” cap from when he accompanied his father Merrill Fogg Jr., a veteran of the Korean Conflict, on a trip to the war memorials in Washington, D.C. Peter Fogg’s grandfather Frank Metcalf served in the Army in World War I.

Selectman William “Bill” Maloney’s cap read “USS Independence.” He served on it while in the Navy from 1963 to 1965. Beside him as they awaited the ceremony was his neighbor Stephanie Davis, who served in the Army from 1994 to 1999.