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Message: 12 To: angel-pie From: ltice [address blanked for privacy] Subject: Memorial Day Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 13:56:49 -0700 (PDT) Dear Angel-Pie, The following was sent to me two weeks ago from a person that knew I was on the worship committee at church. I do not know who wrote the first paragraph but the main subject has its credits. Thought you might want to include it with your Memorial Day page. (Yes, it will be included in our Sunday service.) ltice
Message: 15 Angel Pie, While following some links on the internet I came upon the story that I wrote, From The Other Side, on your Memorial site. You did a very nice job of presenting it and I thank you. This story has been emailed so many times and posted on different sites that some words have been changed or omitted. The finished and edited story can be found on Don Poss' site, War Stories at: <"http://www.war-stories.com/">http://www.war-stories.com/, along with others that I have written. I've gone ahead and pasted the story to the end of this message. I've enjoyed the short time that I had looking through your site and I've definitely bookmarked it, to come back when I have more time. Again, I thank you for allowing others to share in the words of my story and may God Bless You. APVNV Pat(Beanie)Camunes [corrected version of the story followed]
Message: 17
To: angel-pie@oocities.com Angel-Pie Mouse, Thank you for your kind and prompt response to my message. I have three things that I might ask from you. (1) I would like to know where you got the graphic of the angel and the veteran that you used with your beautiful poem. I'm a disabled veteran and this graphic took on a special meaning to me and I would like to maybe use it, with proper permission, on a future story that I may write, (2) Would it be possible for you to contact "Itice" that sent my story to you? I'd like permission to contact, or for them to contact me, since they mentioned that they were to use my story in their church services. Since I wrote this story, I've said that I felt that these words were "given" to me by SOMEONE that wanted it to be shared and the "healing" to begin I would be interested in how it was used or what reactions it may have had in a religious, instead of just a veteran environment and (3) I'd like you to read a Memorial Day message (pasted) that I sent out to everyone in my address book. I know that Memorial Day has passed but I felt very strongly about this message and it was posted in our local newspaper, many email/message boards and I have had nothing but positive reactions to it. I thank you for your time and again, I commend you on a very nice and thought out site. Take care and I look forward to hearing from you again. APVNV Pat(Beanie)Camunes
With the upcoming Memorial Day, I just felt that I had to write something to help me and hopefully someone else through this hardest of days. As so many of us prepare for that trip to the beach or to the lake and get the barbecue fires going, there are so many more of us that will take, at least part of this day as for what it was named, a day in Memory. Not that there's anything wrong in taking this extra day off, we all enjoy it, but there should be that little extra time that one should take to remember those sacrifices and losses that came before us and enable us to be here to enjoy this wonderful day. Some of us suffered losses that were close to us, husbands, wives, sons, brothers, friends, etc., while others only knew someone briefly, knew of him or maybe was there when the loss occurred. No matter, the loss still hurts and should be remembered. Once, when I attended a funeral for a VietVet brother, I remember the preacher attending saying, " We mourn because of our own selfishness, because we mourn our own feelings of missing that person, when in reality that person has gone on to a better place." These are the words that I try to place in my mind when my mind wanders towards that "selfishness", and when that tear does sneak out, I like to think that it's a tear of joy or rejoicing and not one of sorrow. May we all shed at least that one tear of joy on this upcoming day. My favorite saying is, "Freedom has a taste to those who have fought and almost died for it that the protected shall never know [found on a wall at the Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam]." In some respects I like to feel that this is true but in reality it isn't. For everyone of us that fought, there was more than one person associated that supported him/her. While many of these people were family, friends, entertainers or in direct military support, many, many of them lost their lives or still suffer from the after effects of many of the wars we were involved in. These are the ones whose names aren't engraved into stone or metal at many of our war memorials and are the ones that should be included in our thanks and memory on this Memorial Day. Thank you all for sharing and allowing me to share with you some of the good and some of the bad parts of our lives. Thanks to "From The Other Side", I've made hundreds of new friends and supporters and it has been some of the best therapy I have ever had. Life is short, and before we all know it, we'll all be on that "Other Side" with our brothers and family to share an eternity. God Bless you all, and the ones that have gone before us, on this Memorial Day.
APVNV Pat(Beanie)Camunes
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