Recently our daughter, Joycie and I were at the grocery in smalltown. Who does Joycie spy but a WWII vet! We spot these heroes by their hats many times... I see her over there listening to this precious man and his sweet wife...I scoot on over...This man was sooooo precious. This gracious man tells of the battles he fought and how the people back home are heroes to him for their sacrifices.
This is the kind of thing that makes me proud. It makes me proud for what our country was and what I hope for it to be again. This country had a healthy fear of God during those WWII years from what I see and study. God bless our present vets as well, how they must feel at times.
It makes me proud that our daughters caught the most important lessons in homeschooling; to respect and honor those who fought for us; it goes along with loving others as ourselves, being kind, being grateful and thankful. Christ-like.
These are our heroes. These are the ones my girls would get autographs from when they were little in their little handmade booklets made by sweet little hands of red construction paper with artfully placed patriotic stickers on the covers, titles carefully printed in crayon and marker by those wee hands on those covers. So many times the look on these elderly gentleman's faces when approached by our little girls were that of quiet surprise for they have felt forgotten.
This precious man wept openly, tears streaming down his face as he tells us he saw a battleship blown up with fellow soldiers in it...He tells us how he'll never forget. He looks at our faces with stoic blue eyes and tells us many American bones are on foreign soil.
This precious man is 91 years old and doing wonderfully as well as his lovely wife. They raised nine children together without hand-out and his wife tells me that now-a-days people can't even raise one. Yes ma'am.
Joycie tells me just now as I show her these photos taken:
"They are all leaving us now...We have to be them now..."
We have to be them now.... Yes ma'am.
Closing now from the Forest Cathedral this most poignant August afternoon...
Thinking of my dad who this gentleman at the store so reminded me of... This is my mom and dad circa...around 1954. Yes ma'am. My dad is now 84 years young along with my mom.
My mom and dad 1954.
P.S. A taped segment of the late Louis Zamperini was on Haven of Rest radio broadcast today, part II will be tomorrow. Check him out, another one of our great heroes. Books have been written on him, he is a follower of Christ and has an amazing testimony at every angle. Mr. Zamperini just went to be with the Lord July 2, at the age of 97. Our family started listening to the best selling book about him, "Unbroken" on tape, truly amazing. EDIT: Do be aware that there are several places in the book that may not be appropriate for young children or youth.
4 comments:
Beautiful blog post. So wonderful that your daughters learned the respect that is due our military heroes. I enjoyed your pictures.
Oh, what a wonderful opportunity to speak with such a treasure…!
And thank YOU for teaching us to appreciate and value these heroes from that "greatest generation".
Beautiful blog! It was such a privilege to shake this hero's hand... I know that my little "ministry" of thanking vets at stores and such is because of the way you raised us to honor and respects vets! Getting autographs at that Veteran's Day ceremony is one of my favorite childhood memories. :) Yes, we do need to "be them" as the greats are leaving us now... it's sad and sobering.
Makes me thinking of my Grandpa who is also a World War 2 vet who raised 9 children. He is still doing good at 92.
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