Thank You Mom

Thank you, my loving and faithful Mother, for raising your children to love their country. You filled our young ears with stories of heroic and courageous ancestors who heard the call of duty from the Colonial Wars through WWII and answered it. You were one of four siblings who enlisted in the Army when war broke out. You and your sister Lillian went directly in the Army Nurse Corps and your brothers, Fred and Billy, went as infantrymen to the European and Pacific theaters. Miraculously you all survived - largely due to Oma's Southern Baptist power of prayer I'm sure. You married a young Swedish-American lieutenant from Brooklyn, New York, who you met at the Officer's Club at Fort McClellan in Alabama. Together you went to Germany where you were part of the Liberation Force, and where Willie and Freddie were born in Munich. You befriended German refugees and traded your American cigarettes and food coupons for lovely dishes and diamonds they were anxious to trade. Willie and Freddie were speaking German when you brought them home to Staten Island, NY, where Mark and I were born. I saw you in your element when we visited Walson Army Hospital at Fort Dix, New Jersey, during the Vietnam War. You nodded approvingly at the rows and rows of wounded and broken soldiers and went to work giving back rubs and chatting them up with your Southern charm. All our lives you made us proud to be Americans and taught us to love life and to never take our freedom for granted. God Bless You, Mom. I hope you are proud of me and my children, who all serve their country in their own ways.