The My Four Hens Project 52 theme this week is Something Old or Something New. Since last Sunday was Veteran’s Day, Dominic was part of a Veteran’s Day performance at his school this week where all of the third graders sang patriotic songs while the kindergartners waved flags. It made me cry several times. I’ve been thinking a lot about my Pappy. Pappy was my mother’s father and died when I was 20 years old. I wish he could’ve met my children, I wish I could hug him one more time. There is something about grandparents when you are a teenager… you take them for granted. You think of them as being old. You don’t realize until you’ve had your own children how valuable they are… how many stories they hold in their hearts, how much you can learn about your parents and yourself, how much life and vibrance and wisdom they contain.
I’m sharing Pappy’s old WWII Army photo which hangs on my mom’s wall. He was a medic and served in the South Pacific. Both my mom and my aunt said he wouldn’t talk much about that time. I can’t even imagine the horrors he saw being on the front lines. He was captured and was a prisoner of war. I think he was held captive and escaped after a few days, but he would not speak of his time as a POW either.
Wasn’t he a handsome soldier? He had curly red hair and a cleft chin. What a dashing young man. Do me a favor… if you have grandparents in your life, ask them to tell you a story and write it down. Don’t let their legacy ever be forgotten.
