Except for a few family trips, David has not gone anywhere but his twice weekly appointment at Mass General. It’s been five months since the transplant, five months of avoiding public places. David still has a minimal immune system, that's not going to change, but I ask Dr. Fathi if he can at least go to church. David starts attending, wearing a face mask. One Sunday a visitor comes up to us. I expect him to say something sympathetic, but he looks at David suspiciously and obviously wonders if he has Ebola.
Veterans Day 2016
Jim and I walk to Lexington Center, arriving moments before the Veterans Day parade steps off. (We usually jog the last few blocks, since we never leave home early.) We shake hands with Bill Mix, a longtime Minuteman who started the William Diamond Jr. Fife and Drum Corps. (Annie and Sam joined at its inception in 2002.) On this glorious bright autumn day we walk alongside the high school band as they march down Mass Ave.
Mr. Jeffrey Leonard, long-time band director Coordinator of Performing Arts for the Lexington Public Schools, steps aside for a moment to tell us that the chorus risers are in. They were purchased in part with a donation from David’s insurance money.
The parade winds around the Lexington Battlegreen, then heads back down Mass. Ave to Cary Hall. The program starts at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: the 98th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I. The police color guard posts the colors; the veterans of each branch of the military stand as the high school band plays their respective service song. Two Vietnam vets speak as part of the 50th anniversary commemoration. They remind us that they did not come home to a hero’s welcome, but faced public anger and bitterness.
As another speaker, Gina Johnson, is introduced, I realize that she made a pencil drawing of David from a photo. We received the original drawing. For her volunteer mission, Operation Home Ties she draws a “memory portrait” of each fallen serviceman and woman with ties to Massachusetts; she posts a copy on her travelling tribute wall.
We hadn’t noticed it, but in the foyer is a large display, about 8 feet tall and 30 feet long, of penciled portraits. After the program, we view the wall and find a small copy of the same line drawing that hangs on my office wall. We walk over to Gina and show her David’s picture. Through my tears I’m able to thank her for her thoughtful service to us.
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I stopped by David's grave on Veterans Day. It was covered with some Fall leaves which were pretty.
ReplyDeleteThanks for remembering him, Ellen. You're a good friend.
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