SAN ANTONIO – For Imelda Delgado, every Friday is Memorial Day.
When she worked at USAA, Delgado said they wore red every Friday to honor the troops. Delgado said she proudly did it “to honor Chris and to honor all our military.”
Chris Delgado, her older brother, was killed in Vietnam when he was only 21 years old. Like his father, he was in the U.S. Navy.
Chris Delgado’s fuel-laden boat was hit by rocket fire during the 1968 Tet Offensive. His name is on the Vietnam War Memorial at Edgewood Stadium.
Imelda Delgado isn’t at USAA any longer, but she has expanded the red-on-Friday tradition to wearing red, white and blue every Friday to honor her fallen brother.
“It does me good to honor him because he was such a good person, so loving, and people loved him so much,” Imelda Delgado said.
Over the years, she has amassed a vast collection of red, white and blue clothing, jewelry, shoes, purses, and mementos she’s either bought or given to her as gifts.
“People think of me that way,” Imelda Delgado said.
When they think she isn’t wearing red, white and blue, she said she shows them the patriotic bracelets or earrings she has on.
Imelda Delgado said she hopes others will do what they can to somehow symbolically honor those like her brother Chris, not just on Memorial Day.
“Because if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have this country,” she said.