It really is possible to learn something new each time you have a chance to go and visit family. This weekend, I went to visit my mom and dad and during my trip I also attended a baby shower for my cousin and visited with one of my uncles. While we were sitting in my uncle’s living room, I noticed a very nice picture of my paternal grandfather, whom I never met because he had passed away before I was born. Until this weekend, I never really knew how he had passed away. I had assumed that it was cancer, because that seems to be common in my family.
My curiosity got the better of me, and as I admired my grandfather’s photograph I asked my dad and my uncle about what had happened to him. They confirmed my suspicions that he dies of cancer, but they also told me a few things that I did not know about my grandfather. He had served in the military and received not just one, but multiple Purple Hearts. My dad and my uncle said that the actual medals of Honor appear to have been lost, as sometimes happens with family treasures. Especially family treasures in families that have quite a few children – my father and his brothers were fairly young when they lost their father.
This weekend I learned that my grandfather had been injured multiple times during the course of his military service. The injuries that he sustained may have eventually led to his cancer because the shrapnel was left inside of the wounds, as was standard procedure at the time that he was hurt. In learning more about an ancestor that I never got to meet, I also learned a little about medical procedures in years past, and about military medals of Honor. Prior to this weekend, I had seen Purple Hearts in various places but had never quite known what they were all about. George Washington created the Purple Heart to honor members of the armed forces that are killed or injured during their service. If a soldier is hurt, then the medal is awarded to them directly. If they are killed, it is awarded posthumously to their next of kin. Multiple awards are indicated on the medal with stars or clusters of oak leaves, depending upon which branch of the military the person served in.
I enjoyed my visit with my family this weekend, and I returned home with a little more knowledge about my family’s proud history of duty to our country and about the grandfather that I will only ever come to know through family storytelling.