Memorial Day

I received the following email from a friend who has served as President of the Board of Hospice of the Western Reserve (Cleveland, Ohio), and who continues to be very involved in the organization, including serving on the Board. I thought his reflections were worth sharing.

"At 4:00 PM this afternoon, Hospice of the Western Reserve had a “pinning” ceremony at the David A Simpson Hospice House.

The pinning is a part of a Natonal initiative called Peaceful and Proud.

Oscar, a Tuskegee Airman, was given a hospice pin in recognition of his service to his country.

Oscar’s wife is a patient and she was too ill to come to the ceremony, but his children and grandchildren were there.

Oscar was first a Marine, but his feet got flat when he had to carry a shot down pilot through a battle.

He did not know until later that the pilot had been his high school physics teacher.

Since he could no longer be a Marine, he transferred to the Aircorp.

He said his group of fighters, “never lost a bomber.”

He flew 20,000 hours and twice flew across Russia undetected.

The ceremony started a few years ago when Hospice, as well as others, discovered that the WWII vets were beginning to tell their stories as they reached their death beds.

1000 WWII vets are now dying every day.

The pinning is a simple ceremony to express our thanks.

At a ceremony at Parmatown two years ago, several vets were being recognized.

A man was anxiously pacing in the background and as the ceremony was concluding, he came up with a little chip on his shoulder and said that it is “too bad the ceremony is only for WWII vets.”

He continued, “a lot of good people died in Vietnam and all the vets that returned got was yelled and spit at.”

The Hospice people immediately told him the program was for all service people of every branch and every conflict.

They stayed and presented this man with a pin, a speech of thanks and the crowd of watchers continued to grow as he stood there with tears streaming down his cheeks.

He received an extended ovation.

He told the presenters that this was the first thanks he had received, after 40 years."