Fallen Heroes, Young and Old
(Meant to post this blog before Memorial Day)
Nursing a bad cold on a Saturday night, I decided to watch a movie, Taking Chance. It is about a young fallen Marine being escorted back home to the U.S. It’s a sad movie about a man dying so young while serving his country, yet it’s an honorable and respectable story. It made you feel proud of our country. And prouder still, I felt, for another man who served his country, yet was blessed to live many years thereafter. I was to pause and remember the last few weeks, months… actually years.
You see, my Dad, Vernon E. Hauser, died exactly three weeks ago today, on Saturday, January 31, 2009. He had suffered a severe stoke on July 30, 2008, but we got to have him for another six months. Just two days after he died, I found myself staring at a worn, old newspaper article dated January 31, 1945, titled “Comes Thru on Tough Bombing Mission”. Quoted: “When those two engines went out on us while over Bleckhammer, Germany, I thought our number was up” said Sergeant Vernon Hauser.’ We were planning our Dad’s funeral - my sister, Donna, my brother, Dale, and myself with Pastor Steve. In this small black Pocket Prayer Book which belonged to my Dad, there were some old articles about his missions (he had flown fifty) tucked alongside little pictures of all of his grandkids. How perfect! Thank God his number wasn’t up that day and that so many of us had him for another 64 years!
As sad as I have been for losing him, I was overcome with such gratitude by watching this movie that he had lived thru World War II and went on to have such a wonderful life.
Another worn out article fell out of his Pocket Prayer Book. It spoke of his overseas rotation furlough back home to be with his wife, Avis Hauser, our Mom in 1945. They were married before the war in August of 1941; he was just 21 and she 20. A little more than a year later, he was off to war. Our Dad survived the war and came home again to his wife. They went on to have three children and even though our Dad lost our dear Mom in 1977 to cancer, he kept picking himself up by his bootstraps to enjoy life as much as he could.
He outlived two more wives; was even engaged again. He had 7 grandchildren
(6 grandsons & 1 granddaughter) and 3 great granddaughters. He played golf, volunteered for many things, served Meals on Wheels, was president of his Kiwanis Club, was active in his Asbury United Methodist Church. He was always helping others and had a wonderful sense of humor. What more could you want? Still, he is missed.
So watching this movie and feeling the pride for the respect and honor shown our fallen military men and women, I am renewed by the thought of the wonderful funeral service for our Dad on February 3, 2009, as it was awesome. This tribute was followed by the appropriate Veterans’ send-off with the goose bumping gun salute and trumpet playing at his burial… where he would be laid to rest next to our mother. We think she was smiling; she got him back again!