Suzanne’s Personal Quote and Blog for 12/8/2022

Quote

Grief is a terrible burden to try to carry.

A weight that some can never bury.

The black tears of the USS Arizona still cry.

Too many young men suffered and died.

War is a place where loss is the price.
Those that create it … live in a fool’s paradise.
War does not give us eternal glory or gain.

War is a hell whose scars … still remain.

They remain in the soil and reshape the land.

They impact our hearts and leach blood into the sand.
When we risk moments to love in the face of war.

We know that loss will follow, with those we adore.

We want life to be long and for fate to not cut the strings.

Of the young, of our child, or take away those things that make us sing.
But loss is a part of life and as we shed those tears.
We do not realize that grief is often an expression of fear.

Fear that we will not see them again.

Fear that there is nothing … after this life will end.
While death hurts the hearts of those still alive.

That soul is finally free and can be reborn and thrive.

There is a real magic that carries souls away.

And time will heal the grief from all those that still dismay.

~Suzanne Wagner~

Blog

Tribute to those from Pearl Harbor in WWII

I was reflecting on how yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day. Out there in the social media world there were many supporting us in remembering the sacrifices of those many men so long ago.

As we remember those that gave their lives for the freedoms and peace that we have managed to have … I reflect on the only story about that “Pearl Harbor Moment” that deeply touched me on a personal level.
I should probably add that the other big stories I knew were because my grandfather was a WWII pilot trainer during that time. He was one of the few men that had been flying planes before the war and they needed all those that knew how to fly to teach others to fly. So, he signed up and spent the war teaching others how to fly.
But back to the sad story from my childhood.

My grandparents had friends (that we often visited in Oklahoma), whose son died at Pearl Harbor. He was only 18 years old, and I remember that at their house … they had a place above the mantle that was dedicated to that son and his sacrifice with pictures and memorabilia.
When I was just very young, probably 8 years old, they decided to go to Hawaii on a vacation and see the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
They did just that and took the boat out to the memorial where the USS Arizona had sunk.

On the platform, there is a shrine that is where all the names of the sailors were listed … that had died that day on the USS Arizona.
As this father went up to the shrine and found his son’s name on the wall, he unfortunately had a heart attack … right there and died.

The mother said that she felt their son’s death had been very difficult for that father to accept that his son was gone. She felt he never really accepted it until that moment that he saw his sons name on the wall.

I relay this story because as a child, it was such a sad story to a terrible tragedy that happens and that impacts all of those that were alive at that time.
It is so very hard for any of us to lose someone we love in such a way.
It is even more terrible for parents to lose a child.
In that older generation, they did not have the emotional tools that we have today to cope with such terrible moments.
Often, men (especially) would just try to ignore it and live in a subtle level of denial.

Such things are unhealthy over time. Types of denial can break down our health and make us experience the process of coming suddenly out of that frozen place.
Then the truth hits like a tidal wave and some forces are powerful enough to take us out of the game.
What was clear to me even as a child was that this man had a broken heart from losing his son.
While he tried to cope and deal with it in his own way, his heart was broken. Then realizing that he was standing at the place where his son had died, brought the full shock of that truth to him and while we can deny that we have a broken heart, eventually the black tears (like the oil that still rises up from the USS Arizona) burst us open and the grief can overwhelm us.

Here’s to all those who lived and died.

Fighting for freedom to survive.

Here’s to those that gave it all.

Even when it would lead to their downfall.

~Suzanne Wagner~

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