A Tribute To My Favorite Veteran

This is my most prized possession. An old cigar boxed taped time and again. It was given to me when my Grandad died. He was one of the most important people in my life.

As a little girl, I would curl up in my Grandad's lap and be content to just sit with him and soak in his smell, and his peacefulness. He smoked a pipe then and although he was a quiet man, he communicated worlds to me through his gentle ways.

He would show me over and over how to bait a hook, take me for rides in his old truck or on his tractor, would take all of us grandkids in the boat, driving as fast as the wind for as long as we liked.

As I grew older, I grew curious about his life during World War II, while he served in the military and met my Nana in England. He would tell some stories, but was a man of few words and always left me curious for more. He was there at the beach on D Day. I wanted to know, to understand how it would feel to be only twenty, to serve with men that were so close they would give their lives for one another, what it was like to travel to Africa, Germany, Italy. He would tell me some about the other countries, would let me hold and feel his money he had collected from around the world. Some visits he would share a whole story about being on the boat before they stormed the beach at Normandy, or about some little German girls who hid him in their barn when he became sick with malaria and lost his unit. They were precious gems, glimpes into his past, and to what he had experienced.

The box's contents: my Grandad's collected money, pictures of his unit, and his decorations from his uniform.

As he grew older, his health failed. His body just began to let him down a little at a time. When his kidneys failed, and he was very sick, I would drive down to Tyler to spend the night with him at the hospital. Then, towards the end, he couldn't sleep and I would still ask him for stories. How did you meet Nana? Tell me again how you snuck out to see her....

He couldn't sleep well and wasn't able to eat a whole list of things. For a chocolate chip cookie snuck from the deli across from the hospital, he would tell me all about when he grew up, here in Texas, his family, his life during the war.

I realized as I grew older that his gentle ways, his compassion for others and unconditional love were so large to me, I just wanted to know how to live a life like his, to feel content with what I had done. My grandad taught me without words to live well, laugh often and love much. That it is okay to make mistakes, but to live past them. He taught me to be content. I hope that after I have lived for 83 years I can say that I was happy with my life, too.

I want on this Veteran's Day to remember a man I loved for being the strength and root of our family, the giver of endless tractor rides, and a protector of our beloved country. I love you Grandad and I miss your quietness so very much.

Marshall Cherry 6/10/20-11/3/03