|
We wanted to be at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2001 and, if possible, to attend the special ceremony there led by the President. So my daughter Karen, my husband Jim, and I left early in the morning, ready to stand in line. We were there an hour and a half early but the line, two and three abreast, extended as far as we could see. We weren't going to get into the ceremony area. Disappointed, we decided to go over to our son David's grave near the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, and watch and listen from there. I noticed a young man walking up the grassy slope toward us. He saw us and I could see a sign of faint recognition on his face, as as he must have seen in mine. It was a friend of David's who had served with him in his first squadron during their six-month deployment, and I'd seen him at the memorial service for David in Virginia Beach the year before. Later an aquaintance asked about our Memorial Day. I told her about our failure to attend the service but the coincidence of seeing one of David's friends. She immediately responded 'That wasn't a coincidence, it was a 'God-incidence.''
|
