Thank you Terry, yes it's now 16 years since he passed. I still remember rushing to the ER after my mom called me at work. Over the phone she didn't tell me what was wrong just that they were at the ER and it didn't look good. I got there around 8:30 am and a staff member lead me to one of the patient rooms towards the back of the ER. The staff member mentioned my mom and dad were in ther and to just take my time. It struck me as being odd that they would say to take my time but just as soon as I go into view of my dad laying on the table and my mom standing by his side holding his hand I knew exactly why they said it. There was IV tubing still attached to him and and empty IV bag laying at his side. You could teel that whatever staff members had worked on him that they were rushing when they worked. My mom looked at me with tears in her eyes and and said she almost got 50 years out of because the 30th was their 50th wedding anniversary. So my eyes started tearing up and my mom said take some time with him and I'll go sit down. So I walked over and grabbed his hand and ran my other hand across his forehead and gently stroked it. As I stood there looking at his face and began remembering some of the things he had told me he went through while in service and what can only be described as he had been through hell his last couple of months. After a few minutes mom came over and put her hand on my shoulder and mentioned that really he had died the way he wanted to at home in her arms. She said they worked on him continuously from the time they arrived at the house, on the ambulance on the way in and even after they hit the ER but she knew he was already gone by the time they arrived at the house. I looked at my mom and said I agree. I mentioned her dad had the opportunity to get some things off his chest with what he went through in the army that no one else but me knew not even her and she nodded her head that she understood because others that haven't experienced war could not understand. Also from my own military experiences I don't think any soldier would want to go any other way then at home and in peace. I told my mom I had to let Cathy, who I was with at the time, as she was out in the waiting area and I told mom I would be right back. As I entered the waiting area Cathy could tell by the look on my face it was bad news. She came up and asked if I was ok and I said not really and told her about my dad and she began crying. I gave her a min or two to regain her composure but I reminded her mom was still back there as she had come in via ambulance with dad and we would soon have to go in order to make arrangements and contact people. So I went back to the room. So me and mom said our farewells to dad and we left and met Cathy in the waiting area and left. I made sure to pick up breakfast for mom on the way to her house and after we got there the first two people I called were my brothers. The rest of the day seemed surreal and I had never been involved in funeral arrangements at all but we got things done. When Cathy and I got home that night I remembered it was Cathy's birthday. She said she wasn't worried about it and she understood. She said we can just go out next week after things with dad are taken care of.Anyway the following day there was two viewing one in the afternoon and one in the evening and people from all over came to pay their respects, and the next day on the 31st which was my dads birthday was the funeral and he was buried with full military honors for thirty two years of service. Everyone knows about the military tradition of presenting the flag to the spouse or closest next of kin attending the funeral. There is also another tradition that goes with that flag that a lot of people aren't aware of unless they received the flag from the color guard. When the color guard fires their rifle the one of the riflemen collects the spent shell casings from the ground. Some of those casings are handed over to be stored with the flag in it's flag case. One shell for each war the vet or deceased service member fought in. With my dad's flag there are three casing one for WW2, one for Korea and one for Nam.
Topic: (JustMark) Dad's Angel Date (Read 4080 times)
