Family Image

...I can hear the shells fall to the stoned cold earth from the gun. Smoke still lingering around like a ghost. Goosebumps forming on my skin affected by the below freezing weather. Tears falling down my face while standing over the hole bigger than me, dug up in the earth so a box could be placed there. The flag is folded and gathered lightly to be given to my step-grandmother sitting close to her late husband. I couldn't imagine how she can deal with this loss. How does someone grieve over a loved one that once shared a bed with you, or spent every waking moment with you? Til death do us part. It boggles my mind. As the cold wind brushing against me blowing my hair over my face, tears getting caught by the strands. My fathers hands on my arms holding on for life protecting me and maybe also me protecting my father. His chin placed lightly on my left shoulder tears falling down melting my coat. Feeling his pain every minute as the service men express their prayers for their loss comrade. I scan over the members of my family and strangers as they grieve for this loss, but hoping that that someone would be in the crowd smiling over all of his loved ones. As the service came to an end each grandchild was given a rose to put on that "box" that was going to be in the sacred earth forever. Slowly walking to my grandfather praying for his soul and all of us standing there saying our goodbyes the rose was still not enough of a thank you for all his love he gave me. At that moment my father gave me a hug which would be our second embrace in our 19 years together. It felt safe and that everything would be alright. I knew that my grandfather would want me to take care of his son. This was one of the saddest and happiest moments of my life. As we stood there together with my father's mother, father and brother laying right next to each other it seemed everything stopped and I feel they brought my father and I closer together. It's weird what can happen after something is gone. Life goes on, but our greatest memories stand still in our mind just as they happened. It was just last Saturday before I came back to OU that I was watching a football game with grandfather. "The storms in life test our faith," Bible verse. A verse from the reading I read in mass, "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead, and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace," Book of Wisdom.