A Memorable Thank You

Monday, September 7, 2009
We spent the day in our nation's capital, visiting all the war memorials and monuments. All of them were beautiful, well-maintained and people comported themselves in an appropriate and respectful manner. That last part surprised me, but in a good way.

In spite of how powerful the memorials were, for me the most profound moment of the day was when we saw an older gentlemen tooling around in his motorized chair. He was wearing his VFW uniform, which had the conflicts and areas where he served embroidered on his hat. A member of the 101st Airborne, he had served everywhere in the European theater with the exception of North Africa and Italy. If you've seen the HBO series Band of Brothers you have some idea of what this man's service entailed.

I approached him and took his hand, and simply told him that I was thankful for his service. He looked me right in the eye, said "you are most welcome," and pulled me in for a kiss on the cheek. For some reason this affected me deeply, and I started to cry a little.

I try to thank combat veterans whenever I see them and the opportunity presents itself. Reactions like his remind me that it's worth my time to do so.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Bet the old codger loved the opportunity to kiss a lady too! :-)
Them fellers are sneaky....

The Mechanicky Gal said...

Makes me tear up a little, too....
YAY!

Janiece said...

Brenda, you are probably correct. But I find I'm okay with that, in this specific case. :-)