We have not forgotten
To Papa Louie on Veteran’s Day,
Thank you.
Thank you for signing up for adventure when you were still just a kid. Thank you for sticking it out when you didn’t get the job you hoped for and you were separated from your best friend.
Thank you for naming dad after your best friend who didn’t make it home. It makes us remember every day the price some paid for our freedom.
Thank you for your service – for your time spent away from home and family and comfort to fight in the cold and fear so that we could be free. So others could be free.
Thank you for doing all of that and coming back and living life and remembering even when it seemed everyone else had forgotten.
Thank you for being an example then and now to dad and Aunt Susie, me, my brother and cousin’s and most especially to my children and those we have yet to meet. You are a tangible witness of bravery, sacrifice, faithfulness, citizenship and duty to country. You changed our family tree with your signature on a line but who we are and who our family will become was and is defined by everything you did after that.
I know you didn’t know it then, how God called you to the Army and then to Korea because he had a plan for you. But we can see it now. It continues to play out in the life you live with Nana and in each of the lives of your children and all that followed them.
So today, and every day, thank you. Thank you for doing your part so that we can vote for who we want, worship where we please and educate our children as we see fit.
We are so very grateful.
We love you.
* A special thank you to all of our friends and family who have served this great country of ours. Grandpa Headt, Papa Bill, Uncle Bert, Larry, Cousin Chad, Uncle Jason, Fr. C., Michael, Lonny, Mike, Lorne, Vanessa, Aaron, Tony and Ricky. You make me proud to be an American.
