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COMING HOME |
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December 27, 2003 - The tree was festooned with popcorn garlands. There were present wrapped in bright paper and tied up with pretty ribbon. Albert acted the patriarch and handed out the packages to the girls. They tried to be happy, to make it a merry occasion, but there was an emptiness that could not be filled by the little pile of boxes still left under the tree with tags that said, “To Jim. The tears came when the radio played the latest hit.
* I'll be home for Christmas * Christmas Eve will find me Jim Thomas did not dream that dream. Christmas Eve found him in Luxembourg, doing his job, moving up with his artillery unit as Patton’s troops drove to relieve Bastogne. Christmas Eve found him and so did the German shell. The telegram came a few days later. The tidy pile of packages still sat there in the corner of the living room. It took four more years for the Graves Registration unit to locate his hurried grave, identify his remains and send him home to his parents. http://www.lindamclark.net/mingreport/articles/faces.htm We are more efficient now. The four soldiers who were found in Iraq this Christmas have been bagged, tagged, processed and sent their way home. The officers have knocked on the door to announce their homecoming. But the tears are the same, the emptiness is the same, and the tidy ever unopened presents are the same. They will always be the same. Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Afghanistan – the dreams have always been the same and so have the homecomings. This Christmas we received four more Gold Star Mothers – four more empty chairs. That is progress. |
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