In this picture you will see my husband Mark in the bottom left, my husband and our oldest son Danny in the bottom right, and my husband and our youngest son Matthew in the top picture.

These 3 men are my veterans and on this Veterans Day 2017 I would like to honor them.

My husband was a soldier before he ever married me. He joined up with the Tennessee National Guard while still in high school. After graduation he transferred over to the Air Force and he had been in the Air Force for one year when we got married.

As our boys grew up Mark was the kind of man that had an absolute love for his country and the boys could tell it.

After serving in the Air Force and moving back to Livingston Tennessee which was our hometown, Mark re-entered the Tennessee National Guard.

Like most families in our hometown we spent a lot of time at the local ballpark. We would be late getting there sometimes and all 6 of us would pile out of the vehicle and be running towards the ball fields when the National Anthem would come across the sound system and no matter what, Mark would stop dead still in his tracks and face the flag and put his hand over his heart. We all stopped too and followed his lead.

In our family Christmas has always been the number 1 holiday but number 2 was the 4th of July as we are a very patriotic family and we are always together on the 4th.

After our oldest son passed away I asked one of our twins, Melinda, if she could do a painting of her brother for me to hang in my dining room as she is an accomplished artist. The first few times I asked she turned me down but not because she didn’t want to but because painting her deceased brother’s face was too heart wrenching for her and she didn’t think emotionally she could do it.

As the years slipped by and the trauma of Danny’s death eased up a bit I ran across a picture that showed a soldier from behind that was saluting the flag as fireworks were going off in the distance. Oh how fitting I thought this picture would be as it looked exactly like the backside of Danny.

I showed this picture to Melinda and asked once again if she could paint it and this time she said yes! Last November she presented me with this painting.

I now feel like Danny is right there in the dining room every time we sit down and gather for family meals.

My husband and sons have a tremendous love for this country and they each volunteered to serve in their respective branches of the service. I have always been so proud of all three of them and even though Danny is now deceased I feel him with us each 4th of July as we congregate somewhere together to watch the fireworks.

Danny would always cry to the Lee Greenwood song entitled, God Bless the USA and every time I hear the song I feel like crying too.

From …… the hills of Tennessee….. came three great men and I am honored to call them….

MY VETERANS!