Like most love stories from way back when, it began in a classroom. At first, with just a glance or two but then it was the exchange of smiles and a fast look away. Their friends began to notice and started to tease the way friends do.
One Friday night, they were both leaving the same hang out place that all the kids went to. As they finally faced each other, their friends moved on laughing.
Friends are usually the first to know when magic is about to happen.
Shyly, they began a conversation. Somehow, hours passed. They realized everyone was long gone and the girl had a curfew. They got into his truck that miraculously started the first time and he had her home faster than her father would have ever noticed she had five minutes to spare.
“They” became “We” all through that last year of high school.
No one had seen anything like it and even her grandma admitted there was something about “that boy”.
Then he had to leave. Called into action like so many other young men. Through tear filled eyes in front of all their friends and family, they both said “I do” knowing that forever would have to wait until he returned home.
She wrote each and every day.
A couple of his letters made it to her. He believed in this fight and it was only a matter of time before he made it back to her. She could almost feel his embrace.
The feel of her touch was what he held onto as he fought for his life. He prayed she would be okay.
The knock came at the door. Her father caught her as she collapsed into uncontrollable sobs. Her mother felt her heart break as if it were her own. Grandma looked on knowing exactly how this pain felt.
At the funeral, she smiled for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. She thought to that last night and all the promises he had made to her. She had to keep them not just for herself…
Putting her hand over her stomach, she raised her head high as the flag was handed to her while she held onto that strength her husband had while he fought so bravely.
On this Memorial Day,
we remember those who gave their lives for our country…
and the families that had to find their strength to keep on living.
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