Today is Veterans Day. Tonight, I am using an entry from November 21st of 2008, written by one of my favorite people. Its appropriateness will be obvious when you read. At its conclusion, I included the one poem I made all my history classes memorize. I know some of you can still quote it by heart!)When I coached and taught at Friendship Christian School in Tennessee, one of my students and basketball managers was a wonderful young lady named Jenny Haynes. Several days ago, I received a beautiful e-mail from Jenny, , now a grown-up wife and mother-to-be in three weeks. Her words and the accompanying picture were especially poignant to me as we approach a time of being thankful, coming on the heels of Veterans' Day. Her thoughts choked me up. I would guess they might do the same for you. (You can click on the picture to make it larger and get a fuller effect.)
Hi Coach Hawley!!
How are you doing? Jenny Haynes Parish here from Tennessee.... I just finished catching up on some of your blogs and wanted to thank you for posting the Veterans' Day blog. My grandfather died in Normandy (he made it a few days inland) and my husband is a Marine. We have a great sense of patriotism in our home and I hope that will be carried on. Our son will be born on December 15 (William Scott Parish) and I hope to instill those values and traditions in him as well. I want to share with you a touching picture I took of my dad when we visited Normandy in 2004. My dad was only a couple of months old when his father was killed in the war. This picture shows my dad touching the water on Utah Beach where his father must surely have come ashore (he wasn't aware of me taking the picture). It shows him wanting to feel a closeness to his father that he must have been missing. Thank you for your blogs... it is good to keep up with you!! I also want you to know I can still recite every word to In Flanders Fields (and so can Angie Hackney). It really did leave an impression on us!!
How are you doing? Jenny Haynes Parish here from Tennessee.... I just finished catching up on some of your blogs and wanted to thank you for posting the Veterans' Day blog. My grandfather died in Normandy (he made it a few days inland) and my husband is a Marine. We have a great sense of patriotism in our home and I hope that will be carried on. Our son will be born on December 15 (William Scott Parish) and I hope to instill those values and traditions in him as well. I want to share with you a touching picture I took of my dad when we visited Normandy in 2004. My dad was only a couple of months old when his father was killed in the war. This picture shows my dad touching the water on Utah Beach where his father must surely have come ashore (he wasn't aware of me taking the picture). It shows him wanting to feel a closeness to his father that he must have been missing. Thank you for your blogs... it is good to keep up with you!! I also want you to know I can still recite every word to In Flanders Fields (and so can Angie Hackney). It really did leave an impression on us!!
Take care and God Bless,
Jenny
In Flanders Fields (John McCrae- May 1915)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
In Flanders Fields (John McCrae- May 1915)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
God bless,
Steve
Steve
Luke 18:1
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