Harry....

[stumpfield]

I'm very sad today... I was out of town at the time. This is what I was told... The sheriffs came. ...then the coroner van. ...then they removed Harry's body from his home. Everyone was wearing white gloves and mask over their mouth. I haven't seen Harry for a couple of months. I was wondering how he was doing. Harry had been living in this same house for 77 years. He tells every stories of the area. ...Over and over again. He never tired of telling the same story everytime we talk. ...and I never tired of listening. Harry was alone. No family no friend. May Harry rest in peace.

[twstanley]

You have my sympathies for the loss of your friend.

[MarineJAG]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

[GaryM]

Sorry for the loss of your neighbor, and a piece of history too. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Pat]

This is a frequently repeated tale of woe. "I sure wish I had known Soandso better or spent more time talking with them.

We are trying to ID the folks we would regret loosing the most and try to spend more time with them or talk more with them while we can. Not a perfect system by any means but one with fewer regrets.

This goes double for vets, a very underappreciated group. I have been privileged to have had 5 friends, older gents and one lady marine who is the wife of one of the other WW II vets as friends. I have been close to 5 of these heroes, combat vets all (except the Lady Marine, AKA BAM which she swears stands for Beautiful American Marine!) The Marine and two of the men are still living and are pretty active.

The Navy UDT guy and driver of landing craft on D-Day stopped by for a few days while on a several thousand mile 5th wheel towing trip, just 3 weeks after dying on a sidewalk in Florida, being jumpstarted, and having a pacemaker installed.

During the Memorial day reruns of WW II flicks I watched Richard Widmark in "The Frogmen" a fair rendition of a part of the exploits of UDT-4, my friends outfit. He said the picture was OK just had everything a little wrong like the order of the missions and the attacked sub pen was a RADAR installaltion in reality, the sign left on the beach was on a different beach, they had no Commander but an Ensign they called "Buckles."

The other vet also an anchor clanker (navy guy) drives from Oklahoma to Florida and Oklahoma to California in their motorhome every year with his wife and entourage of Chinese Chin dogs that they rescue.

I know none of these folks (or any of us) will last forever and I can't change that but I can enjoy them while they last.

My wife and I don't make it a secret how much we appreciate them and their generation for doing what needed to be done.

This is not to incinuate that only vets deserve our attention, that is not the case. Something we could do well to "borrow" from the Chinese is a veneration of the older wiser folks among us.

Sadly there isn't much more you can do for Harry except remember. Some cultures believe that the dearly departed haven't completely departed so long as they are actively remembered. I like that, a lot.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]