A late Memorial Day dinner

I am already preparing myself for the fact that I will cry writing this. I have always had such a soft spot for old men. I imagine it's because I lost both of my grandfathers so early in life, it's something you never really recover from. I still miss them both daily. I have been blessed to be able to have both of my grandmothers for so long and so many aunts that I'm very close to. But with the exception of my dad, I've had few adult male family members to be able to enjoy time with or receive advice from. But when I married Drew I feel that I gained two amazing grandfathers. Both of Drew's grandfathers are so sweet and loving and have made me so welcome. I always love spending time with them.

Drew informed me last week of meeting his friend David's elderly neighbor who was a WWII veteran and David wanted us to fix dinner for him. So last night, Emily and I cooked and their neighbor joined us for dinner. He is 92 years old, lost his wife to breast cancer and his daughter is currently fighting breast cancer. Immediately, I was in love. He had a great sense of humor (bringing his bottle of Wild Turkey with him) and told amazing stories.

He had plenty to talk about with Drew, David and Emily because he too was a Mechanical Engineer who graduated from Tech. But he was happy to hear that my degree was in history. Of course at 92 he repeated a couple of stories more than once but I would have sat there and listened to him for the rest of my life. His war stories were amazing and he was always quick to say he was lucky to make it home because so many did not.  He also told us about driving an army truck and accidentally ending up in the middle of Times Square. He wanted to be a pilot but said that he wrecked too many planes so he had to settle for being a navigator. Oh yeah, and he went to Casablanca during the war and got kicked out of a bar for stroking a girls hair. Man, he has had some kind of life.

He cried when he told about how his wife helped settle him down and actually finish college. And joked about his son only coming to visit to go to Tech football games. And spoke so fondly of his daughter who David told me comes to see him daily.

He kept thanking us and said that he was grateful to be in the presence of so many great people. But I could never thank him enough not only for his service but for spending the evening with us. It was such a special experience for me. I hope we get to spend a lot more time with him because he blessed my heart.

Until I met my dear college professor Mike Strouth, I didn't learn to appreciate our veterans. He placed such an emphasis on enjoying them while we have them. The rate at which we are losing WWII vets is staggering, something like almost 800 per day. And only recently we lost our last WWI veteran. Strouth always said that these men and women should be our heroes rather than the Kim Kardashians of the world. You tell 'em Mike.