June 29, 2009

• WHERE VALOR RESTS ...

   

  Last year we received a beautiful book called Where Valor Rests that was produced by photographers in honor of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery. On page 64 of this book, there is a photograph of the section where Dustin is buried ... and his headstone is prominantly shown on the page.

  During our visit to Washington DC this past week, we visited that very place ... the place where we left our son's body to rest forever.  Being near his grave and seeing his name etched in stone makes his death feel so much more real ... and yet it's still hard for me to comprehend that he's not really here with us anymore. I wouldn't have thought that being there would move me to such emotion. After all, I know that he is not really there ... his spirit is in Paradise with the God that he served. Still, knowing that my baby boy's body lay just beneath that piece of ground made me feel connected to him somehow ... and ... sad too that though he was so close, he was beyond my reach. Our tears flowed freely the days we sat with him there.

  

  Tomorrow would have been his 25th birthday. Birthdays are a pretty big deal in our family. Every Kendall birthday celebration always includes the honoree's favorite meal and desert, along with a day of leisure and royal treatment. Dustin's birthday favorites ... grilled steak (or ribs), watermelon, and cherry cheesecake. Tomorrow we will have a birthday celebration full of his favorite things. And ... as we have for the past 3 years, we plan to celebrate the life that he lived, recall with gratefulness the time that we had him ... and shed some tears for the time we are missing now.

  Cpl Dustin Lee Kendall to many ... just 'son' to us.

  Happy Birthday, Buddy. I wish you were here.

   

  • 11:40 pm
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