Veteran's Day

TGIF!

I am DEFINITELY feeling better! YAY!

Seriously, I'm not a good patient. Ask my doctor. She'll tell ya. Cranky, whiny, and stubborn. She had to call the house one time and threaten to drag me into her office by force if I didn't get back in there for a follow-up visit.

My blog post is late this morning because Twin B was singing "God Bless the U.S.A." for the school's Veteran's Day assembly.

He was soooo cute!

And of course, Mommy teared up to see her little man on the stage, singing his heart out, and doing the cutest little dance moves to the song. I managed to control myself, and not bawl all over him.

But I also teared up thinking about my grandfather, Park Conklin. I never knew him. He died about a year and a half before I was born.

But he served as a Staff Sergeant in the Army during WWII. He trained troops going to the Pacific Front for the first few years of the war (he taught Judo, too, which I always thought was so cool), he went to the European Front in 1944 and was one of the liberators at the Dachau Concentration Camp, and he won the Bronze Star. However, no one in our family knows why. I don't even know if my grandmother knew what he did.

Mom told me once that a very good Army buddy of his came for a visit once and only told them this, "He defied an order to send his men into harms' way, and took it upon himself to carry that order out. He saved all their lives." And was awarded the Bronze Star.

Wow.

Curious thing that I am, I want to know more than I can say what he did to save their lives. What order did he defy? It must be the writer in me. I can't help myself.

But I am blessed beyond words to be able to call myself his granddaughter. He was probably the bravest man I never knew.

Shake the hand of, or hug, a veteran today!

Later!