Prince Pundit

Merry Christmas to each of you. We are in San Francisco with our daughter and her husband enjoying the opportunity to be with family. The number-one son is also with us, so we are all together. This is only the second time we have been away from the homestead for Christmas in many, many years.

My brother and his wife also live in San Francisco, so it's good to see them as well.

Hope this is a great Christmas for you. Remember the reason for the season.

Greyhawk has a post from a father of a fallen soldier.  It’s a must read.

Read it here.

Life is hard when you lose a child; you have children and you think of them burying you and not the other way around. But war brings a new perspective to the parent child relationship, for the parent is put in a position that they are unable to fulfill a basic parental instinct - protect your child. Losing a child, especially in war and especially with media attention focused on your loss, is difficult. I find myself counting time in weeks - every Monday at 6:20 p.m., I silently remember, maybe with a tear, that X weeks ago Mike died at what was 2:20 a.m. his time on Tuesday; then as the evening goes on, I think, Mike was dead X hours at this time; I then awake on what is my Tuesday morning, and at 7:00 a.m., I remember the call to my home and the voice saying "Mr. Stokely, this is Maj. Hulsey - please come to the door, you dog won't let us up the driveway and we need to speak to you" and then remembering my fast gait to the driveway and asking, before they can say anything "is my boy dead" and the the words they spoke, with humble sadness in the eyes of Maj. Hulsey and the Chaplin that was with him "we regret to inform you...." But the pain,while there, is more manageable. I think it must be like the rigours and harshness of war - it is always the same, you just adjust.

Hattip: Greyhawk