Letter To A Soldier, Anna Harris [good summer reads .TXT] 📗

Dear Stan:

One day I came across a bunch of letters written to your family and you caught my heart. We never met for I was only a kid when you died in October 20th 1969, actually I was born in that same date eight years before, isn't that strange?, I don't know if you can call it that but I feel somehow we are linked in this peculiar way. you were raised in Iowa, I was living in Cuba my country of origin, so on the day that I celebrated my eighth birthday you were killed in the Vietnam war.

When I read your letter I felt as if you were narrating those letters to me. Your voice comes clearly in each of them. I find them heart warming and very special. I can't forget how you asked your mom to send you a radio or a camera to take pictures to send home. You wanted to go back home so much, you were so young. Your sister has writen a wonderful book about you, it touched me that she made such a tribute to you, I too lost a sibling, she was sick for a long time and the day she closed her eyes was the saddest day of my life.

You were a handsome young guy, you looked so good in your Army uniform but the picture that caught my eye was your high school picture, your face is so familiar to me, is like I know it from somewhere, that happens to all of us, there are people who seemed familiar even without personally meeting them, life is a mystery, I think often. I owned the book your sister wrote, is a very special book to me, I often read your letters again. Ever since I read those wonderful letters I had been honoring you every Memorial Day, Fourth of July or Veterans Day, you come to mind because you gave your life in a very horrible war, yes all wars are horrible but that one in particular is stock in many people's minds.

Life had changed since you left this world, now we have cell phones (you would it have loved them), digital cameras, ipods to listen to music and one of the most important inventions, the internet. Nothing is simple like it was in the past, people are less romantic, more inclined towards material stuff, money is more important that true love, people hardly stay marry like in the old days, now divorce is very fashionable, people think of it as a guarantee, is easier to get a divorce than to try to save a marriage. People live together more than get married, a lot of things have changed. I am in my forties but I wished I had been born before, I love the music of the forties, fifties and sixties, they had feeling, rock and roll was very cool back then is not like today's rock and roll and country was country music not pop country (and I have to say that I listen to it because I love music, is my passion). Too many things had changed since that October in 1969 when you closed your eyes to this world.

I had gone through many difficult situations in my life, losing the people I love the most so when I went to Arlington one hot July day three years ago my heart felt the peace of that place where fallen soldiers of every war are resting. I promise myself I would go back, is the most special place I had ever visited, I pay my respects to Audie Murphey the most condecorated soldier of any war (he was also a film star, I am sure you knew that). Stan, people don't have to know each other to be connected, I believe in the bridge between heaven and earth, I believe in soul connection, I don't know the reason why you came into my life but one thing is true you will always live there as a very special person, a true hero, a good son and brother, I feel like you are a friend from above, a soldier I love dearly. Every time I hear the Comeback song by Darius Rucker it reminds me of you, I don't know why, the melody makes me think of you. Stan, I don't know how those final moments were for you, I could see you lying there in the Vietnamese fields, it comes clearly to me.

All I want you to know is that you were brave, this small book is for you, is my tribute to you.

with love;

Anna

Publication Date: 12-14-2010

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