SARATOGA — Lorraine Bartholomew visits the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery a couple of times a month. Monday, she was joined by more than 300 people attending Memorial Day ceremonies.

Bartholomew, of Mechanicville, said she visits her husband David’s grave as often as she can and finds it gives her comfort.

“This is a beautiful place and when I come here, I see I’m not the only wife who wishes her time with her husband could have been longer,” she said.

The Bartholomews celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary a few months before David died in 2004. He was a World War II and Korean War veteran.

Services remembering all deceased military men and women drew a crowd at the cemetery under warm, sunny skies.

The Rev. R. Bruce Johnston of the Clifton Park Center Baptist Church thanked those attending and reminded them: “For many, this is not a day of diversion, it is a painful day to remember their losses.”

The nearly 352-acre cemetery had 6,844 interments as of the end of 2007, according to information provided by the administration. There is space for 175,500 veterans and eligible dependents.

James Wilson is chairman of the cemetery’s support services committee.

He said some of the men and women who are buried at the cemetery have had no visitors since their interment.

“When you stop to visit a loved one, please pause and look to the left and right and the front and back, and say hello to the people who are buried there,” he said.

Wilson said the federal government makes no financial provision for flags to fly along the driveway entrance to the cemetery. There are 50 flag poles lining the drive.

He said the flags are donated, and many were once draped on caskets.

“If you don’t know what to do with a flag or if it’s just sitting up in the attic, think about dropping it off here,” he urged.

Wilson said there have been as many as eight funerals a day at the cemetery, and donations and volunteer efforts are greatly appreciated, as they keep the facility running.

The main speaker of the afternoon was Regis Massimino, director of Management Support Service for the National Cemetery Administration.

In addition to remembering the dead, Massimino said great attention should be given to veterans now returning from war zones.

“Most come home to families and some have visible or invisible wounds of war,” he said.