Hero Mama

I just read a really amazing book.

First, you must know that my soldier daddy left for Vietnam when I was a week old. Born on the 10th, baptized on the 15th, Dad left for Vietnam on the 17th. As my Norwegian ancestors would say, "Uff da."

So Vietnam has haunted my family and my life as long as I can remember. The effects of that war permeate our family relationships to this day. And we were lucky -- my dad came home. In possibly the only good act he ever committed on this earth, Dick Nixon created the early drop and got my dad's happy ass out of 'Nam about a month early. Almost makes up for all the evil stupid shit he did, the sorry bastard.

Hero Mama is the memoir of Karen Spears Zacharias, the daughter of one of those soldiers who came home in a box. She spoke at an event my parents attended and they bought her book for me. I love to have signed books, so they had her sign mine. Here is what she wrote:

"Jennifer --
I am so glad your father made it home! Thank you for your own faithful service.
Ransom the sacred

Karen Spears Zacharias
4/30/05
30th Anniversary
Fall of Saigon"

Rabbi Marshall Meyer said, "The art is to ransom sacred moments -- the message of the past -- and to deposit them in the bank of eternity." Karen uses this quote in the book and it stirs my soul.

I am putting a link to Karen's website on the left in my links section. The book tells how her father's death changed everything for her family -- and challenges all of us to realize that today those same earth-shattering effects are being felt by the families of servicemen and women who are being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And Dad, I am proud of you and your service to your country. I love you.