Wow. Tears are flowing. I have the original letter announcing my Uncle Frank’s death to my grandmother. I also have his Purple Heart. His death pretty much destroyed his family. Even until my mother’s dying day, she pined for her big brother.
Wow. Tears are flowing. I have the original letter announcing my Uncle Frank’s death to my grandmother. I also have his Purple Heart. His death pretty much destroyed his family. Even until my mother’s dying day, she pined for her big brother.
I am so sorry to hear that NinaG. He paid the ultimate price for a higher purpose - defending freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - but he is never gone. He hails you and your family from unseen distant shores and radiates love and guidance as he waves. A friend sent me this:
Gone From My Sight
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!" —Henry Van Dyke
Wow. Tears are flowing. I have the original letter announcing my Uncle Frank’s death to my grandmother. I also have his Purple Heart. His death pretty much destroyed his family. Even until my mother’s dying day, she pined for her big brother.
I am so sorry to hear that NinaG. He paid the ultimate price for a higher purpose - defending freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - but he is never gone. He hails you and your family from unseen distant shores and radiates love and guidance as he waves. A friend sent me this:
Gone From My Sight
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!" —Henry Van Dyke