It’s almost midnight. Memorial Day is almost over.
Before my day began, I knew what I had to do- especially one thing above all things.
In my neighborhood at the end of one of the streets on my regular running path, I kept seeing this car parked outside a familiar home. I have not taken the opportunity to meet the new neighbors who lived there. We wave when we pass one another, but I’m always too busy to stop and say, “Hello”. Today, I stopped.
I have noticed each time I have gone by this home a car with the window decal that you see pictured here. I decided to stop and take this picture. Then, I knocked on the door. No one answered. Later in the day after the day’s work was done outside, I told Andrea that I was running an errand. She said, “To do what?” I said, “To thank the family of a Marine. He died when he was 18 after he had just begun serving our country.”
I rang the door bell three times and almost left again. After all, it is kind of strange for a stranger to ring your door bell unannounced and not yet introduced.
Mr. Sims came to the door. He had an eagle eye look deepened with a wisdom of pain, but a friendly yet quizzical manner. I told him that I was his neighbor and while we had never met, I wanted to thank him for his son’s sacrifice on our behalf as a nation. He shared with me about Andrew and then about Andrew’s brother who left six weeks after Andrew died as a United States Marine to serve our country in Afghanistan in the United States Army. One son died and one survived in the war on terror.
I paused to thank him again. We said our goodbyes and on the way to the car I noticed the worn American Flag posted right along the walkway. And I thanked God again for him and those like him who lived and died so I could live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave-just like Andrew Logan Sims.
And I remembered again that Memorial Day was about more than my 3 day weekend…