For one of our veterans on South Whidbey “coming home” each day was getting to be a challenge because of the deep ruts in his graveled driveway and an unfortunate brush with a medical challenge.

His home is nestled onto the top of a knoll and is surrounded by verdant pastures populated with horses, dogs, cats, and family including a special grandson. It’s the kind of pastoral scene a veteran pictures when in a trench, foxhole, the jungle or desert of some far away war zone.

The veteran who lives on this farm in South Whidbey is a volunteer board member and coordinator of volunteers for the Veterans Resource Center. His fellow veterans were aware of the hours he invested calling volunteers to cover the phones. They were also aware of the many other veterans he had helped with information and referral services and the hours he spent helping veterans know where to go for medical help and how to navigate the VA health system.

In October he was afflicted with an illness that caused him a great deal of back pain and limited his mobility significantly. It has been a long road to recovery and was marked by regular doctor appointments, ferry trips, tests, and a painstakingly slow recovery. He had to pull back from his daily interaction with fellow veterans, board responsibilities and the work of the Veterans Resource Center to focus on getting better. His fellow veterans continued to visit him in his home and noticed the approaching winter season and the deep ruts in the roadway leading into his farm.

The veterans I have met tend to be very independent and industrious people. At this particular place, this veteran enjoyed fixing the fences, tending the grounds, feeding the animals, and owning a little piece of the American dream.

A local business was approached and agreed to donate half of a 10-yard dump truck full of driveway gravel. Friends from the veteran support group  he attended weekly chipped in the remainder of the cost of the gravel. One day in October five veterans showed up, met the truck driver and spread the gravel into the ruts and smoothed out the driveway. His wife and he had purchased donuts and maple bars and had made coffee for the workers. He came out on the porch, taking small painful steps to say “thank you” to his friends and to welcome them in to his home. The next day the rains came and the winter season began in earnest.

He wouldn’t have asked for the help fixing his driveway. That’s not the way veterans approach their challenges. But his friends were there in the difficult times just the way he had been there to help others in their need. It’s what veterans do. They are there when they are needed to help each other and the people in need in their communities.

The VRC is a nongovernmental charitable tax deductible Veteran Service Organization made up of volunteers. We are supported by your donations.