2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division was what my younger son served with for two tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was a Bravo Bayonet. My nephew now serves in Afghanistan with almost exactly the same designators. Sadly, he is a Delta Demon. (Just kidding Jamie!)
Kidding aside, these young man are getting hammered and have suffered woundings and deaths. One of the young men who was recently killed was PFC Anthony Simmons. He was a young man who was from here in Tallahassee, and it was my honor to attend his funeral to represent my family, to offer what support I could to his mother, his brother - who also serves with 2/327, and his other family members.
8 July, 2011
It has been a year, today, since Anthony Simmons was killed.
I had initially started this post, as you see, last year on the day of his funeral. Something made me wait until now.
While this post is to honor and remember young Anthony, it is even more specifically to offer support and honor to his mother, Renee.
Renee is a member of a rather elite club to which NO ONE wants to belong, she is a Gold Star Mother.
I served as a Blue Star mother and I recall only too well, the harrowing pain and worry one carries for their child on deployment to war.
You think you can understand because you are a mother what it would be like. I thought that too. Until my son deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, now known as OIF 1. You have absolutely no idea what it is like, I promise you, until you live it personally. And it is hellacious.
Thus I know that I cannot begin to imagine what this has been like for Renee, what this continues to be like for her. I do not mean to minimize the sorrow or pain of any other family member, please understand. I single out the mother because that is a singular relationship.
There is a special bond between mother and son (sons) that I had never known about as a daughter. I have absolute confidence my sons would walk through fire for me, as I would for them. I am sure this is the case for Renee and Anthony and Nicholas as well.
I cannot begin to fathom how the strength is found to carry on when you hear your son is lost to this world. As a mom, I can tell you that you see your son, the grown man, the soldier, and you see at the same time that sweet little 3 year old who tells you you are the" bestest mommy ever" and how much he loves you. And you know that that 3 year old who you picked up when he fell and kissed his worries away and laughed with and hugged and tickled and turned into a human airplane for his entertainment is right there in front of you in the grown man. And now the eternity of him is gone.
Forever.
And his birthday comes. And Thanksgiving. Christmas. Easter. Family events. And you have to cope and go on. Surely just a morning, just any ordinary morning is hard enough to bear and you have to endure them all and every special moment too.
I think, Renee, that you have found how to become a warrior goddess among women. I think it was required of you and you didn't want to do it - who in God's green earth would? - and you picked yourself up morning and took a step, as you had to. Some days, I would bet you had to pick yourself up many, many times.
You, too, are a hero because of this.
I was proud of my city, our city of Tallahassee on that day almost a year ago. I was proud of how Rolling Thunder stood honor guard at the church, both the evening before and the day of the funeral. I was proud for you how you stood and opened yourself to kindness - from friends and family and from strangers as well, for I came to offer respect and kindness on behalf of my family and was, myself, a stranger to you.
After the funeral, I was proud of so many citizens of our city who stopped their cars and got out to bow their heads, of homeowners who came out with flags as the cortege passed. I was proud of the fact that for this miles long funeral procession, the Interstate was closed off to other traffic. Both directions. To give honor to a young hero, the Interstate was closed off to non-procession traffic. The Rolling Thunder, the Firefighters, police, sheriff deputies, emergency workers who stood to honor this stricken family in the heat of July in Tallahassee, what pride in honor they showed. I was proud of our city when, as we got off the Interstate, the sidewalks and street sides were filled with people holding flags, offering their condolences and making their efforts to extend honor to our military in general as well as to this family, this soldier in particular on his last ride. As we turned up towards the cemetery, people in this neighborhood, too had their flags and many stood in front of their homes to offer what they could.
The cemetery was packed.
PACKED.
So many people wanted to offer kindness, courtesy, sympathy, honor to you, Anthony and to your family.
I was proud of our city that day.
I know, Renee, that you must also have been proud of Tallahassee doing honor to your son.
We honor you, Renee. You have walked a whole year now with this bitter sweetness. That your son Anthony is not here and yet he is. You have shown so many people how to keep walking, keep fighting, keep your head up and keep moving.
My heart keeps empathy for you. I'm proud of YOU, Renee. And I am willing to bet that laughing from somewhere we cannot hear, cannot see, is Anthony -- saying with great pride "That is MY mom."
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment