Today is Veteran's Day. A day we honor all of the men & women you have fought for our country so that we may have our freedoms.
It was a very humbling day for me. We decided to go to breakfast with some friends this morning. The restaurant was busy so we had about a 20 minute wait. I was standing around, people watching when I noticed a couple that each had a set of dog tags around their neck.
The lady had a Marine Corps shirt on so I approached her and asked if she had a son or daughter that was a Marine. She said they had a son that had recently graduated from boot camp. We talked about boot camp & I related my story about Michael giving me his first EGA. The one he got at the end of the crucible. I told her how special it was to me. I asked if they had been able to attend his graduation. She said no. Their older son, a Marine deployed in Afghanistan, had been killed by an IED 2 weeks before graduation. Silence. I apologized more wholeheartedly then I think I ever have before. I cannot begin to fathom what they went through. I shed quite a few tears, mourning for these parents. Realizing how lucky I am that my own son made it home safely.
I thanked them for their sacrifice and told them I would be forever grateful to their sons for the dedication to our country.
Needless to say I am looking at life differently right now. Life is so precious.
