It always amazes me the people I run into. Not long ago, while Dave and I were out, we started a conversation with the couple sitting next to us. An older gentleman with a baseball hat announcing "WWII Vet" joined us. After I thanked him for his service, the first man told us his older brother had been killed in the war when he was just one year old.
We told him of our son, and what we had been doing to keep his memory alive. He was impressed. Unfortunately his parents, particularly his father, never moved forward from their loss. He only remembers a bitter and angry man, a man unable to enjoy life again. "As I see it," he went on to say, "you have two choices, either hide yourself away with your head in the sand, or get out there and make something good of it." This comment has stuck with me.
Dave and I have felt this way from the beginning. Many of the recent Gold Star Families feel the same. Keeping our children's memory alive not only helps us but benefits so many others. Our getting out there raises funds for scholarships, wounded warriors, returning troops and their families, as well and so many vets. Telling our story, showing things do get better, may help other families of fallen to cope in those first dark days and months. Being part of groups with missions bigger than ourselves helps us to carry on, knowing there are so many people who genuinely care.
Neither of these choices would have been easy, that is the trouble with such a devastating loss. But the way I see it, it is much easier to have some company along the way.
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