So this morning bright and early I dropped him a short note:
Just wanted to take this moment and apologize for not contacting you yesterday. After reading Kat's post about meeting you and Mike's friends and family at his grave site Tuesday evening, I knew that you wanted us to not mourn but to celebrate life.
Mike obviously was one of those people that touches people whether they want him to or not and he has definitely touched all of our lives by giving us an example of how to live our lives, purposefully. I am honored to have met him through you, and I will always call you and him my friends.
Take care and please let me know if you need anything.
Mr. Stokely responded in part:
“…[A]s I said grave side and in my letter to everyone, Reveille has sounded, the call to duty is to charge forward and live life fully and happily as possible, always remembering, never to forget. Yesterday was a quiet day for the most part - spent taking care of the final plans for the GA HWY 54 Road Dedication in Coweta County GA in Mike' Memory - on October 6, at 4:00 p.m. this roadway, by action of the General Assembly of GA and the Governor, will officially be dedicated the SGT MIKE STOKELY MEMORIAL HIGHWAY. It is a highway that begins at the county line of Fayette and Coweta Counties - Line Creek, where the picture most often used of Mike was made, and running eastward to GA HWY 16 in Sharpsburg, the small town where we live and that was where Mike lived with us the year before going to Iraq. It is also a place where I taught Mike how to drive a stick shift. He traveled this road to GA 16, which then took him over to his National Guard Armory on many a day for drill, and is the roadways we last traveled together when I took him to the Armory that early morning of Jan. 6 for initial deployment and back again on May 1 for his final leave. No doubt, this quiet road is a vital part of our memory and life.
I also spent part of the day re-tracing steps of places I lived with Mike when it was just he and I, and then at the home where we lived when my wife Retta and I married and where Mike's brother and sister were born. That home was one which I struggled to purchase - 682 square feet, in very rough shape, but one which I went as far out on a limb as I could so I could get my boy, Mike, a place where he had a shady fenced in back yard that he, as a three year old could safely play and be a kid. I went back to the old apartment where he and I spent many afternoons feeding the ducks with stale and discarded bread from the bread baking company next to my job. It was the most entertainment I could afford to give him, but some of the most precious memories and times of bonding we could have had. As I type this letter, I
am in Mike's room, looking at a simple photo taken of us "running" - his two and half year old legs proudly carrying him hand and hand with his dad as we were coming back from feeding the ducks, taken almost to the day he was to die 21 years later.
Last night, I wrapped up my designated day of fasting with the Tanker Brother's Rolling Fast. I started at 1820 hours 15 August (0220 hours Bagdhad time) and have yet to eat as of 0830 hours 17 August - but, in a little while, I am going to eat me a good traditional southern breakfast. There are two important moments left that will be marked and remembered in this year of firsts - August 24 - the day I met Mike coming home from Dover and August 27 - the day Mike Stokely was laid to rest. If you don't mind and don't think people are too worn out with me, I would like to share those two important moments with you and others. They are probably the most painful moments of my life outside of the actual moment of being notified of Mike's death. But I offer them so that others might know the cost of war and the price paid when a soldier dies and in the hope that it might just help someone else who has or will go through this similar experience.
Thank you for your generous support and letting me tell Mike's story - and our's.
Robert”
At first I didn’t know what to say but then the words just flowed out; I think you will agree with me when I say:
Please share those stories with us, I for one will never tire of hearing your stories about Mike and the "milestones" you encounter as a Gold Star Father. And I am sure that there are a thousand others if not more that feel the same way. If the world has not yet had enough with the freak show named Sheehan then they could never tire of your story, for it isn't one that is told to garner fame or celebrity status but rather it is one told from the heart.
Mike like Casey Sheehan lived his life according to his purpose; the difference is in how those lives are now being used, one for personal gain and profit and the other to share a meaningful story that is as relevant today as it was when Christ died for us. Remember “Honor is the reward for what one gives” and Mike and You and Your Family have given enough to be honored for an eternity.
As I said in many of my posts...Mike was an American Fighting man he should be honored for his sacrifices and convictions not used as some sort of prop on the world stage. You sir have done a great thing by telling your story, it reaffirms in us all that there is hope for this country, and it makes us ask that special question: "Where do we find men like this, who are so willing to subject themselves to inspection and hardship all to advance that cause of freedom?"
Keep leading the charge in this mission and I will keep up with you to the end.
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