Nine year old Collin Kelly wanted to celebrate Memorial Day by marking the graves of war veterans with flowers. The Framingham (Mass.) boy collected money, ordered the flowers, and then learned life's lesson that no good deed goes unpunished.

The Kelly family has been on an unexpected adventure since Collin first came up with the idea to plant marigolds at 156 veterans' graves by Memorial Day. Collin thought somebody should put flowers on the graves of these soldiers, many of whom have been buried for decades, and he and his mother, Lynn, got the cemetery's OK to start planting flowers.

But when the cemetery's board of trustees got wind of the plan, they said the Kellys couldn't plant flowers on graves belonging to other families. Though board members said they appreciated Collin's gesture, their decision prompted an outcry from local veterans, nasty messages left for the cemetery superintendent and national media attention.

A few days ago, the trustees and the Kellys reached a compromise: the Kellys and friends could place geraniums, not plant them, on the graves, and they would remove them shortly after.

That's right, they have a "rule" against unauthorized planting, even on Civil War era graves. Only after intense public and media pressure would they relent, and the plants must be promptly removed by Memorial Day's end.

While Collin and several other children could only place the flowers on most of the graves, he was able to plant a geranium at the grave of Clyde P. DeLancey, a World War I veteran who died in 1972. "Today is a special day," said DeLancey's granddaughter, Perry Bent of Framingham, standing next to Collin as he dug.

After Collin moved on to another row of graves, Bent pulled out an index card with writing on it.

"I've got to put up a little political sign that says 'planted by a family member' so it won't get removed," Bent said. "It's sad that you have to do that." In addition to the please-don't-remove instruction, Bent's card read: "Thank you, Collin."

It's amazing that a 9 year old boy understands more than a board room full of cemetery bureaucrats.