Team Edward

Tonight I made plans for dinner with my dear friend Sara. We were meeting at our usual place, The Cracker Barrel in Marana. As I’m waiting for the table I notice a gentleman struggling to talk to the hostess about getting a table. If you know me then you know I usually will just jump right in to help. So I spoke up for the gentleman, whose name is Edward, and got all his questions answered, for the hostess. After getting him a chair to sit in I noticed he had a WWII Veteran hat on. I had just come from work so I had my 390th name tag on still. I bent down and began asking him where he fought during WWII. I told him about the museum I work at and he told me that his brother was a tail gunner on a B-17 during WWII. I showed him pictures of, “I’ll Be Around” and asked if he’s ever been. As we were chatting another Veteran came over and wanted to shake Ed’s hand and thank him for his service. These two went on and on about their times in the service and when they were finished they gave each other a hug.
Ed then asked if I would have dinner with him. He said that he lost his wife of 69 years, Patsy, a year ago and he hates eating alone. I, of course, said yes. I let him know that I would be right back so I could let my friend know. I ran to go text Sara that she would be joining me and a WWII vet. I explained how I just started talking to him and we are now having dinner. Her exact words were, “of course we are.”
We all three enjoyed our dinner hearing about Ed’s time in the Air Force; about his 6 brothers and all of their military time; about his four daughters and how he doesn’t sleep much because the county is threatening to take his home because of the need for his lot to be cleaned up. WAIT, what? The county has threatened to take his home if he doesn’t clean up his lot of land. Sara and I finished dinner and Ed invited us to come look at his lot. He has a lot of work that needs to be done. He has a lot of work because he’s 94 years old. He has antiques, memories, and a mentality of, “someday I may not have it so I’ll keep it just in case.”
Sara and I have vowed to help this WWII veteran clean up his plot of land. We will need help but for just today I felt so lucky. I had been feeling down because of the chaos of this current state of our world. Instead, today I was reminded that my gift is to be able to talk to anyone. My gift was to meet a WWII veteran who asked me to have dinner with him and I was able to say yes. I hope to help this veteran keep his house and to help clean up his land. More than anything, I’m proud to be an American and even more proud to have the ability to help an American hero.