Thank you for your service

Veteran's Day, 2019. 

We'll probably have to remind our mother that today is Veteran's Day -- That would be important to our daddy.  I could have also named this - Our life with a Veteran!

My sister, Cindy nor I knew much about daddy's time in the Philippines.  We knew we never ate lamb or fruit cocktail because those things were served on the ship as he rocked across the Pacific in 1942.  That was the extent of what he remembered about the War.

Our parents endured almost four years of the first five of their marriage half a world apart.

In my mother's things, I have found photos and letters that they sent to each other when daddy was in the Philippines.  They had married a few months after daddy enlisted, something he did just weeks after the Japanese had bomb Pearl Harbor.  In December 1941, daddy gave mother an engagement ring,  He knew he was going to enlist and he knew she would wait for him.

He missed her high school graduation, but that was okay.  She had made a beautiful white dress that she knew would also serve as her wedding dress.  In mid-July, he called her from Shreveport, Louisiana where he was stationed.  He had made Sergeant.  There was enough money for them to be married.

Glendale Community Church canceled prayer meeting for their wedding on August 5, 1942.

They had seven weeks in Shreveport before he learned he was shipping out and she boarded a train to come home to Jacksonville.  They often told us about that time of wedded bliss.

Then 43 months later, he came home.  Somewhere there is a photo of them in the front yard of the Nesmith family home "kissing".  Her words in her scrapbook were: "Oh happy day, he's home to stay".  They were ALWAYS kissing.

74 years ago next month, daddy's service to Uncle Sam came to an end.  They were able to build a house and he took some college courses on the GI Bill.  Daddy never bragged about the help he got.  I think sometimes he was almost embarrassed.  He thought his service to our country was an honor.

Cindy and I never heard the stories.  Our brothers, Jonathan and Lester, heard some of them, but you let him have grandsons....all six of them have heard lots of stories.  I guess it was okay to talk about things like that with boys.  Three of them, Chad, Brad and Tray followed in his footsteps and are Veterans.

One of our family's greatest joys was when daddy reunited with some members of his squadron and they began to have reunions.  What a fun weekend in the early 90's when that group came to Jacksonville.  We had a blast

When Rich Suhey died in 1998, daddy insisted that his coffin be covered in an American Flag and my son, Tray, in his National Guard dress uniform handed me that folded flag following the service at the cemetery.

"We are thankful for his service".

I think that's the first time I heard those words.  It certainly wasn't the last.

One thing daddy always did when he saw any member of the armed forces was to thank them for their service.

Our mother carried on that habit.  We were sharing breakfast in a restaurant when she got up from the table.  She was already on a walker and I'll never forget her slowly making her way toward some soldiers who were sitting at a nearby table.  I listened as she said, "I just wanted to say thank you for your service."

Daddy had been gone a few months when we learned about a program for the Surviving Spouse of a Veteran.  Although it took a while, each month there's a deposit into mother's bank account from a program called Aid and Attendance. Sometimes I wonder how daddy would feel about this.

I'm pretty sure that since this is to help his honey, he'd be grateful.

As for my siblings and me.    Each month as I use these funds for our mother's care, I always think.

"Hey daddy, Thank you for your service!"

May your life be filled with enough Sunshine 

to make you appreciate the Shadows