Families Mourn Those Absent At Holiday Table
USA Today
November 21, 2007
Pg. 5
Families Mourn Those Absent At Holiday Table
When American families gather together this week to give thanks for what they have, many also will reflect on what they have lost this year. Some of those tragedies have an added dimension, because they took place with the nation watching.
The dramas played out in places large and small, including Minneapolis, Blacksburg, Va., and Huntington, Utah. They were caused by nature or by man or by madness. One family was thrust into the limelight because of recognition for their son, a hero killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2005.
Those left to press on have found strength in friends and family, and have discovered strength of their own to share with others. They're thankful for something else, too: loving memories of the people they mourn.
Parents of Medal of Honor recipient take it day by day
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- Unlike their son, the Murphys didn't volunteer for this duty. They take on their unwanted burden with grace, humility and pride.
Dan and Maureen Murphy are only weeks removed from an emotional White House ceremony, at which President Bush presented them with the Medal of Honor - the nation's highest military award for valor.
They accepted on behalf of their son, Lt. Michael Murphy, killed when he and a small unit of fellow Navy SEALS were ambushed in June 2005 while hunting for a terrorist on a remote Afghan mountainside. Wounded, he went out into the open to transmit a call for help; he was shot in the back as he made the call, but he completed it and continued firing at the enemy.
Although the initial shock of hearing their 29-year-old son was killed in action has passed, the Medal of Honor ceremony and the blitz of national media attention have made the Murphys ad hoc spokespeople for families who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.
"I think that helps us in the grief process; we get to remind America of these families," said Dan Murphy, a law secretary for a state Supreme Court justice in New York. Nearly 4,300 "are feeling what Maureen and I are dealing with every day," he said. "And yet they don't get the attention."
The Murphys will celebrate Thanksgiving this week, reminded of their lost son. When Michael and his brother, John, were young, they would take time during the holiday to make out their Christmas wish lists.
-- Frank Eltman
November 21, 2007
Pg. 5
Families Mourn Those Absent At Holiday Table
When American families gather together this week to give thanks for what they have, many also will reflect on what they have lost this year. Some of those tragedies have an added dimension, because they took place with the nation watching.
The dramas played out in places large and small, including Minneapolis, Blacksburg, Va., and Huntington, Utah. They were caused by nature or by man or by madness. One family was thrust into the limelight because of recognition for their son, a hero killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2005.
Those left to press on have found strength in friends and family, and have discovered strength of their own to share with others. They're thankful for something else, too: loving memories of the people they mourn.
Parents of Medal of Honor recipient take it day by day
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- Unlike their son, the Murphys didn't volunteer for this duty. They take on their unwanted burden with grace, humility and pride.
Dan and Maureen Murphy are only weeks removed from an emotional White House ceremony, at which President Bush presented them with the Medal of Honor - the nation's highest military award for valor.
They accepted on behalf of their son, Lt. Michael Murphy, killed when he and a small unit of fellow Navy SEALS were ambushed in June 2005 while hunting for a terrorist on a remote Afghan mountainside. Wounded, he went out into the open to transmit a call for help; he was shot in the back as he made the call, but he completed it and continued firing at the enemy.
Although the initial shock of hearing their 29-year-old son was killed in action has passed, the Medal of Honor ceremony and the blitz of national media attention have made the Murphys ad hoc spokespeople for families who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.
"I think that helps us in the grief process; we get to remind America of these families," said Dan Murphy, a law secretary for a state Supreme Court justice in New York. Nearly 4,300 "are feeling what Maureen and I are dealing with every day," he said. "And yet they don't get the attention."
The Murphys will celebrate Thanksgiving this week, reminded of their lost son. When Michael and his brother, John, were young, they would take time during the holiday to make out their Christmas wish lists.
-- Frank Eltman
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Thank You Night Stalker, as a Gold Star Father,I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it truly is,the empty place setting brings many tears...Steve 0 -
quote:Originally posted by voodoofire1
Thank You Night Stalker, as a Gold Star Father,I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it truly is,the empty place setting brings many tears...Steve
Steve, I was thinking about you and your family this very morning. I sent you an email a few days ago with an offer. If you ever need any assistance with that issue, please do not hesitate to ask.
When I look back at the men I have served with who are no longer roaming this Earth, I am grateful for my time with each of them. However, as thankful as I am for the opportunity to have known them, I am equally (if not more grateful) to know that they had parents of such strong conviction and character that they raised that man in such a manner that he knew his calling to serve his Nation was more of a duty than an option.
God bless you my friend.
NS0 -
Very well said, Nightstalker.
Doug0
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