In Remembrance

"All gave some,  and some gave all."    

My Mom's uncle, James - aged 26.  He will forever be 26 years old.      My mom has this picture on her Facebook page today; I had never seen it before.  He looks so sharp in his perfectly pressed uniform.  You can even see the marks on the corners where this was taped into a photo album.  The young lady he was supposed to marry, Beth, ended up marrying someone else (understandably).  I wonder if she ever thought of James over the years?  She has passed on now, too, but for many years, she wrote a recipe column for our local newspaper, and even published a cookbook or two.      James was my maternal grandfather's oldest brother, in a family of three boys and one girl.  James died in Anzio, Italy, when the jeep he was driving ran over a land mine.  The middle brother, Richard, was missing  somewhere in France at the time the family received the news of James' death.  Then my grandfather, the youngest son, was called up for duty.  I can remember as a young girl, my grandma telling me that her mother-in-law said, "They've taken all my boys now."  An all-too-common situation during those war days.  Thankfully, the other two brothers came home.     Life is so uncertain and so precious.  I try to remember that every day.  Those killed in service of our country, and all the countries during that terrible war, deserve to be remembered.  It's painful to think about, but so important, too.      Thank you for stopping in.      Blessings,