Veteran...

The elderly man and his wife walked into Constitution Hall together.  He was very thin and walked slightly hunched over; giving him a frail appearance.  But his eyes suggested that he was anything but frail.  Even in his advanced years his baby blues blazed brightly and his smile was so big that if he were to tell me that he were the luckiest man on Earth I would not have doubted him.

The man and his wife had come to see a speech/reenactment of a part of the Bleeding Kansas series; one of six reenactments that the curator and his friends put on every year.

"So are you a historian?" the old man asked.

"Well, I'm kind of new to this era," I said, "I still have a lot to learn.  I know more about World War Two and have been reading up a little bit on World War 1."

"Ah," said the bright eyed old man, still smiling, "I served in World War Two."

My heart skipped a beat and I was temporarily speechless.  I get excited about meeting World War II veterans much the same way as people get excited about meeting a movie or rock star.

I haven't met many World War II vets (that I know of) --- four to be precise. So when I suddenly found myself talking to a fifth veteran, I really had to work to stay under control.

As soon as the old man mentioned he was in the war I noticed the World War II pin on the lapel of his jacket; it had been tucked away beneath his trench coat before.

And I must say that the gentleman was dressed very sharply, only enhancing his bright eyes and winning smile.

"I served in the Pacific," he said.

"Really?" I said, "That's where my granddad served."

"Who was he with?" the gentleman asked.

"The seventh division."

"Marines?"

"No. Army."

"Ah....That's good." he nodded.

He then pulled an old photograph out of his wallet and showed it to me.  His face beamed as he presented it.

"Here is a picture of me and my lovely bride of seventy years."

Seventy years?  I was thunderstruck.  In this day and age where twenty years seems a momentous accomplishment it took a while for what he said to sink in.......Seventy years.  Wow.

They were a stunning couple.  (Still are actually) My memory is hazy but I know for sure that I saw the gentleman in his Navy dress uniform but I sadly can't seem to remember what his wife was wearing.  Regardless, they were so young and full of life.

I smiled as I stared at this beautiful photograph.

"It's good that you have this," I said, "My granddad didn't hang on to any of his things.  When he came home from the war all he kept were his discharge papers." (He did hang on to a few photographs, but I was a little nervous and forgot that minor detail,)

"When I made his shadow box," I continued, "Everything that I put in it was a replica."

"Well," said the gentleman, "When I came home from the war I put everything in a box and put it away."

"He buried it in a drawer," said his wife, "He never looked at it."

The gentleman shook his head and smiled, "I didn't look at it again until I was eighty years old."

When he said that it answered the long lingering question that I had been carrying with me ever since the day granddad died.  That was seventeen years ago.....

For seventeen years I had always agonized and wondered if I should have brought up the war with granddad.  I wondered if I had just blown an opportunity to learn some very valuable family history.

But after hearing how this man shoved his memories into a box and refused to relive them for almost sixty years it confirmed to me that I had done the right thing by my granddad by not bringing it up.

It sucks not knowing about everything my granddad saw and all that he did.  But I would never want to learn about his time in World War II if it were to come at the cost of his piece of mind.

"I suppose I we had better find our seats" said the gentleman. "It's been nice meeting you."

I reached out and shook his hand. "Yes, sir.  Nice to meet you."

The old man, with his bright blue eyes, nodded and smiled as he released my hand to take a seat at the reenactment with his wife.

As he walked away I couldn't help but smile myself....I just met another member of the greatest generation.  What a great day....A great day, indeed.