Let’s be honest, when you’re a tour guide who is by the memorials regularly and perhaps hundreds of times overall, you get a little numb to them. It’s a job and you can forget how special they truly are. It doesn’t happen to me at Arlington National Cemetery, but walking by the Lincoln Memorial seems like just another day.

And then something happens to make you remember it’s all about real people.

I seem to have nurses on my tour regularly and they want to see the nurses’ memorial by the Vietnam Memorial Wall. No problem – it adds a few minutes to a tight schedule but we’re here for the customers so I do it.

I recently took a young woman who said she was an Army nurse in Iraq. I explained the memorial and suddenly, she started sobbing. Long and hard. I’ve learned that it’s OK to be quiet sometimes during tours, that not every moment needs to be filled with chatter so I gave her needed time while her friend comforted her. I can only imagine the hard things the woman probably saw during her tour.

I’ve seen people tear up at the Vietnam Wall when finding a loved one’s name. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial can also evoke emotional moments. But this was my first experience with such at the nurse’s memorial.

The memorials may be made of bronze, marble and granite, but I’ve learned not to be made of stone when showing our sights to visitors.