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After
already being involved with the elderly (read the “elderly”
page if you haven’t yet) and having started the Adopt a
Grandparent program, visiting the VA hospital set me on fire with
passion. I was asked to be a celebrity guest as Mrs. Denver
America
during the week of Veteran’s Day and ended up not being able to
sleep that night after my appearance. I was awake with the minutes
I had spent with Lawrence, a WW2 veteran who had 2 weeks to live.
He had just reunited with his son after several years and was
dealing with being cheated by lost time. I kept thinking about the
wealth of stories and thoughts still alive in this man that would
soon die with him, never heard by his son or other descendants.
This was a man who had bleed with fear so that so many others
could live with peace. When it was time for me to leave his room,
we had looked at each other with the same unspoken thought: how do
you say good bye to someone who is only days away from death? As I
had simply held him in an embrace, he whispered privately in my
ear away from my chaperones “Don’t ever forget about me,
OK?” I placed my hands on his shoulders and told him in
confidence I would not only always remember him, but that I was
going to do something great put his name on it.
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