Sharings from a military funeral *DMK*   Author:  11341  Category:(Interesting) Created:(9/23/2003 2:38:00 PM) This post has been Viewed (870 times) I thought I would share a couple things that were read at my dad funeral. Hope you enjoy. I watched the flag pass by one day. It fluttered in the breeze A young soldier saluted it, and then he stood at ease. I looked at him in uniform So young, so tall, so proud With hair cut square and eyes alert hed stand out in any crowd. I thought how many men like him had fallen though the years. How many died on foreign soil? How many mothers tears? How many pilots planes shot down? How many foxholes were soldiers graves? No freedom is not free. I heard the sound of Taps one night when everything was still. I listened to the bugler play and felt a sudden chill. I wondered just how many times that Taps had meant "Amen" when a flag draped a coffin of a brother or a friend. I thought of all the children, of mothers and of wives, of fathers, sons and husbands with interrupted lives. I thought about graveyard at the bottom of the sea. Of unmarked graves in Arlington No, freedom isnt free! I can say that Taps for me does mean Amen. I will never be able to hear it again without crying or smiling......maybe both. This poem made me bawl my eyes out Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not here. I do not sleep. I am the thousand winds that blow: I am diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain: I am the gentle autumn rain. When you wake in the morning's rush Of quit birds in circled flight. I am the soft star that shines at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry: I am not here... I did not die. I dont know who wrote either of those pieces, but to my heart they are both beautiful. How it changed my life: Funerals are hard to begin with, but this one was so different. I had never been to a military funeral before. I handled most of it well; things were very uniform and proper. I lost it when they had the 16 gun salute and then they played taps. The sign leading into the cemetery said Where Heros Rest. As with all soldiers, they are heros......every one of them. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or interesting stories for the world to read and respond to Click here Scroll all the way down to read replies. Show all stories by   Author:  11341 ( Click here ) Spring is coming