Rusty's Armory

May it not be in vain …

Posted on May 29, 2016 Updated on May 29, 2016

Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.  My mother and fathers remains are here, two out of 122,000 grave sites. One stone here has my father’s name on the front side, and my mother’s name on the reverse.

My last visit there was in 2005.  I doubt that I will make the trip visit it again.  I am finally at peace with their passing. There is no going home again for me in this lifetime.

But during my last visit, I watched as four aging Viet Nam veterans visited the graves of their comrades. Their faces were grim as they unerringly made their way from one comrades stone to another in that vast sea of white marble.  I choked back the tears as a sense of futility overcame me. Few indeed will escape the icy clutches of the reaping angel, and we can only hope that it wasn’t in vain that they served.

Our hope is in a hereafter, not in our past.