Friday

Veterans

Dear Lorena,

I want to express my most sincere appreciation for you and offer my support to you as your son Carlos serves our country.  I know that he has charted his own path in order to honor and defend our nation, sacrificing much personally, thinking and working for the freedom we sometimes take for granted .  In doing so, you and he both have become people that I can point out to my own children as people who are upstanding, brave and selfless.  Your loyalty, dedication and love of this nation is evident in so many of your actions whether you realize it or not and I have the utmost admiration for you and Carlos and all that you do. 

Again, on this Veteran's Day, I thank you both.

Respectfully,
Nancy

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Thanks so much Nancy.  It brings tears to my eyes every time I think of Carlos going to Afghanistan but at the same time I am so very proud.  Let us all pray that Carlos along with all the other troops come back well.  I appreciate your beautiful thoughts and find comfort in your words.  We do love this country and consider ourselves incredibly blessed to live here.  You have a great Veteran’s Day too!

God bless America!

Lorena
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My coworker and new friend Lorena and her family came to work in the United States as migrant farm workers 50+ years ago.  She spoke no English when she first arrived and was educated in a vast series of migrant school classrooms around the country while working in the field with her family from the time she was five years old. She said to me recently that her dad was the hardest working man she ever knew. 

Several of her siblings served in the military...her sister retiring from the United States Airforce, defending the country that allowed them to work and essentially thrive as a family. Her son Carlos proudly carried that tradition on, attending a private military high school, being accepted to and attending the Citadel for several years, and is now being deployed to Afghanistan with the National Guard shortly after Thanksgiving of this year.

This is just one of many instances of my friends honoring, serving and protecting the people and country that we love so much.  There is really no way to express the depth of my gratitude for what they do.