Proud.

One thing I regret, that I talked a little bit about in a
previous post, is not asking my grandfather stories about his time in the Navy. As I get older, I have more of those regrets - not listening to older relatives' stories of "when I was your age...". I don't want my children (whenever they come along) to grow up having the same regrets...

So, what's the point? Right?
Well, today I received an email from my Aunt:
"Hey,
The Belleville News Democrat did a story on Uncle Walt, and it was in the Sunday paper. []..type in Walt Berry story and it will open to the head line; click on that and there is a video of Uncle Walt talking about the war, it is so sad. Poor Uncle Walt, made me cry..."

Of course, I immediately opened another search tab and searched for the story on www.bnd.com.

And there it was. This is my great Uncle Walt, my grandfather's brother-in-law. Along with the PTSD he's suffered with all of his life, he also has pretty severe COPD. Some of the things in this story, I never knew until I read the article / watched the video. It made me cry, to be perfectly honest. It made me cry knowing he's suffered quietly (I never had any idea of the PTSD) all these years. And it made me cry knowing the situations and surroundings he was in all those years ago in the war. And it made me cry, knowing that until now, I had NEVER asked him about his childhood / young adult hood.

Thank you, Uncle Walt, for sharing your story with thousands.