We spent yesterday afternoon in Rochester, meeting with my cousin Tracy to look through a box of our grandmother’s mementos. She died twenty years ago, just a month before her 94th birthday.
There are many old photos in her collection which have no notation on them, so we can only guess who they might be. There are also letters that my uncle Gordon wrote home during World War II.
The most touching item that we came across was his Purple Heart, neatly boxed as my grandmother most likely received it. I can’t imagine the emotion she must have felt, having just lost her oldest son to the war in France in June 1944.
I asked Tracy if I could keep the medal for awhile, to hold it and share it. I can imagine my mother and her mother touching it and mourning the loss of brother and son. It has been tucked away for so long. I needed to bring it to the light of day today and remember them.
