Honored

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day.  I didn’t really think much about it except noticing the banks and post offices were closed and the one million instagrams, tweets and status updates in regards to celebrating those that served.  My spirits have been a little low recently and it was hard for me to really consider the sacrifices and impact these men and women have had on our lives.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate it or don’t think they deserve to be honored, it just couldn’t get myself to a point that I felt like doing so.

That is until I got this text message from my dad.

 

 

I was driving to Incarnate from work and checked my phone at a red light.  I instantly started crying. 

Holy Trinity was celebrating our Veteran’s with a Mass and donut breakfast.  They do this every year and every year Alex asked for his great grandpa to go.  He had been asking my dad for several weeks now to bring his great grandpa.  His class was hosting the mass and breakfast and the rule was you had to have a Veteran there to get breakfast.  I’m pretty sure he was in it for the donuts!

Last weekend, though, he was talking to me about how much he wanted great grandpa to be there.  I was surprised by his sincerity in his request, although he totally wanted the donuts.  He teared up when he began to say that he didn’t know how much longer great grandpa might be around and he wanted to make sure he knew who he was.  He wanted great grandpa to come to his school and eat a special breakfast with him and tell him about what life was like when he was younger.

Of course this made me cry, too.

The kids visited great grandpa on Halloween.  He seemed confused and didn’t know who they were.  He thought Grace was me and he couldn’t recall the other kids’ names.  I tried to reassure them that it probably had more to do with them being dressed in costumes and me not being there. That made it harder for him to grasp a frame of reference.

Alex and Eva delightfully reported that he seemed completely with it yesterday.  He knew who they were and their names.  Eva did say he asked them several times what grade they were in, but that was only because he was making a joke out of it.  Something to the effect that if she was in third grade and Alex was in fifth grade then he must be in fourth grade because he was sitting between them.  She said he kept joking about never getting out of fourth grade and how he must be the oldest fourth grader ever!  Eva went on to say, “you know, mom, he’s pretty funny!”  She is right!  He has always been funny.

Great grandpa is now 88 years old.  He’s loved, married and buried two wives.  He’s raised four children and has buried one.  He has lived through the great depression, the cold war, served in the Navy in World War II and has lost all but one of his siblings.  He loves his kids, grandkids and great grandkids.  He is awe inspiring, funny, kind and above all heroic.  He is the patriarch of our family and because of him, we have learned to put God first and to love and honor our country and family.

I am so glad my kids got this special day with him and even more honored that they will have this memory to cherish.