COL tami 1111

  • November 4, 2013
  • 372
                        
There was a cold, miserable day nearly 30 years ago that I plodded up a cemetery hill for a graveside service for a man I did not know. I was 22 years old and the editor of a weekly newspaper in a small village. One of our office’s frequent visitors was the town’s only funeral director. Ben was a tall, gracious man with a wonderful sense of humor, I thought, especially given his choice of career. On this day, when nothing of particular interest was happening in our ancient, second-floor office, Ben dropped by with a death notice. It was a stop of convenience, he said, since our office was right on his way to Union Cemetery, a few blocks of brick streets up from us. As he chatted with the office manager, I scanned the notice and saw something I seldom did: “He had no survivors.” What? None? Not even a long-lost nephew or a second cousin living out of state? No, Ben confirmed, the man had no one. There were just going to be a few words said at the gravesite by the local Lutheran minister, whose church was closer to the cemetery than our office. I looked again. This man was an Army veteran. He’d seen action in World War II, European Theatre. The reporter in the room looked over my shoulder at the paper. “We should go,” she said. And so we did. It was the two of us, two men from the funeral home, and the minister. It took less than five minutes before we all resumed our normal lives. I’ve never forgotten it, especially on Veterans’ Day, because no veteran should have no survivors. By survivors, I don’t necessarily mean family. Every man or woman who ever fought for his country, who put his or her life on the line for his fellow Americans, has millions of survivors. We survive today because a soldier fought then. A soldier left family, friends, hometown and hearth to go fight in a strange place. Someone fought so you could live in a country free from the British Crown. Someone fought so you could live in one United States of American. Someone fought so you could live in a world where evil and tyranny would never win. More and more often, we wonder why we fight. Why can’t we bring everyone home? Why are their problems our problems? Because this is a world where fanatics crash planes into office buildings, where terrorists think killing women and children someone pleases a deity, where insane rulers pledge to destroy America just because we exist. Those veterans are a proud bunch and well they should be. And because we are their survivors, we owe it to them to make sure they can take advantage of everything their countrymen can give them: top-notch medical care for the wounded, help finding employment, combatting the long-term effects of combat, a hand to shake, and a commitment to help make their lives as good as they have helped make ours. What better day than today – Veterans’ Day – is there to commit to making home a better place for a solider? After all, we’re all his or her survivors.


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