We walked over to Sunnyside Cemetery in the afternoon sun. We pulled a few stray bits of weeds and grass and put some flowers on the grave of Kathy’s father next to the headstone that so briefly mentions World War II.

We thought back to a few months ago when we were at Normandy trying to imagine that June morning in 1944 when he had first visited France. Where had he landed? How could this now beautiful countryside have been so bloodied? He came home safely.

My father had been in North Africa as the tide of battle on that continent ebbed and flowed, finally shifting in our direction. He too came home safely.

I wore the baggy greens on the far side of the Pacific some years ago.

We scattered our sons and a daughter in the Navy, Army, and Air Force. They all came home safely.

And so as we sat there on that quiet and peaceful hillside I wished we could bring everyone home safely and never send them away to fight for pretended, or real, causes again.

John E. Morelock

Coupeville