Memorial Day 2025

Top of Mind

Ghosts, Gravestones & Pancakes: How Columbus Remembers.

Columbus does Memorial Day the way it does everything else: a little weird, a little heartfelt, and totally on brand.

Some cities mark the holiday with grandeur. We mark it with solemn parades, pancake breakfasts, and the occasional Confederate ghost.

Let’s start on the west side. Tucked behind a wrought-iron gate in Hilltop sits Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, the final resting place of over 2,000 Confederate soldiers who died in Union captivity during the Civil War. Every Memorial Day, a small group of locals quietly lays flowers and flags. No headlines. No hot takes. Just a tradition that hums along quietly in the background of the city.

And yet, it might be the most uniquely Columbus way to honor the dead: understated, surprising, and haunted. Literally haunted.

For decades, people have claimed to see a woman in gray roaming the grounds, laying flowers on a single grave. Always alone. Always silent. She’s become part of the lore, less like a ghost story and more like a city employee no one hired but everyone respects. No one’s caught her on camera. But no one’s ruled her out either.

Meanwhile, just blocks away, Columbus remembers its fallen with flags, marching bands, and whipped cream.

In Bexley, it’s Boy Scouts and bagpipes down Main Street. Worthington wraps things up with a cemetery ceremony at Walnut Grove. Hilltop hosts a parade of its own, just a few turns from the cemetery where the South lost the war. And in Hilliard, there’s a full pancake breakfast before the parade kicks off, proving once again that Central Ohio will never let patriotism interfere with carbs.

Together, these moments, the haunted cemeteries, the syrup-sticky tributes, the small-town salutes, form Columbus’s strange and sincere Memorial Day mosaic. A city where solemn and silly sit comfortably side by side.

So, whether you spend Monday remembering the fallen with silence or syrup, just know this: Columbus honors in its own way. Flags get raised. Flowers get placed. And every once in a while, someone looks up and swears they saw a woman in gray, still searching, still remembering.

We contain multitudes. And we remember them all.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Approximately how many feathers does an eagle have?

A) 1776
B) 10,000
C) 7,000
D) 3,000

Did You Know Blue Jays Are @$$ #*%&$
Just ask Apollo, the bald eagle.

Along the Scioto River near Grandview Heights, an unlikely drama is unfolding high above the trail: a family of bald eagles has taken up residence, complete with a newborn chick and a neighborhood feud with a gang of blue jays. And it’s got half the city perched on benches with binoculars.

Meet Apollo and Athena, majestic, fierce, and highly photogenic. The two bald eagles have become local celebrities, thanks to a massive nest visible from Dublin Road. Their eaglet, nicknamed Star by the internet, made its first public appearance earlier this month, wobbling around the nest under its mother’s watchful eye.

But while Athena handles feeding duties and parenting like a pro, Apollo’s job is mostly crowd control, and not just for the camera-wielding humans. Blue jays, the notoriously aggressive neighborhood bullies of the bird world, have made it their mission to harass anything larger than themselves. Despite being nearly a quarter of an eagle’s size, these feathered instigators are known for dive-bombing raptors, coordinating mob-style attacks, and shrieking loud enough to startle hikers. Apollo’s favorite perch has become a full-time post of defense.

And yet, this little nest represents something bigger than just local bird gossip. Bald eagles, once nearly extinct in Ohio due to pesticides and habitat loss, have made a dramatic comeback. From just four nesting pairs in the 1970s to nearly 1,000 active nests today, the species is now one of the state’s proudest conservation success stories. Athena and Apollo’s nest is one of only seven documented in Franklin County, and easily the most visited.

The site near 994 Dublin Road even features an official viewing area, complete with signage from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Regulars have started referring to one another by name, eagle-watching has become a daily ritual, and local kids are learning the difference between a fledgling and a fluff ball.

So if you’re looking for a reason to touch grass this weekend, head down to Grandview and say hello to Star, from a respectful distance, of course. You’ll get a glimpse of one of nature’s most iconic birds, a proud Columbus comeback story, and, if you’re lucky, a front-row seat to one of Apollo’s daily standoffs with the neighborhood blue jays.

From Tupperware to a Movement: The Story of Visionary Meals

Before it was delivering chef-crafted meals across Central Ohio, Visionary Meals was just one hungry college football player trying to juggle practices, midterms, and macros.

Meet Josh. Sociology major at Wittenberg. Four-year athlete. And the guy who accidentally stumbled into meal prep as a lifestyle because there simply wasn’t time not to. What started as survival cooking turned into a system. And then a business.

By 2018, Josh had taken his kitchen hustle back home to Granville, Ohio, and built something bigger than a side project. Visionary Meals launched with a simple goal: feed people well, without wasting their time or their values.

Today, Visionary serves thousands across the region, delivering fresh, locally sourced meals to convenient pickup spots every week. The dishes are crafted by chefs. The ingredients are often Ohio-grown. And the mission? Still grounded in faith, purpose, and community.

This isn’t about meal kits that rot in your fridge or calorie math disguised as dinner. Visionary is for working parents, gym goers, and anyone who just really doesn’t want to meal prep on Sunday night. No subscriptions. No nonsense. Just real food that respects your time.

What makes them different? The integrity. The local sourcing. The roots in a family farm. And the belief that feeding people well can still be personal.

Healthy, done honestly. That’s the Visionary way. Visionary Meals!

We can offer 'Visionary15' as a discount code for 15% off for readers! 

Trivia Answer:

C) 7,000!