All my brothers and sisters served in the military. Most of them served in the Marine Corp, one in the Navy and one in the Air Force. Charles was in the Marines and served mostly in China.
That trip was a very emotional one, for we were a very close family. My daughter and her husband Arthur, drove me to Marion’s house. Together we went on to Houston, Texas, and spent the day visiting Marion’s son Bob.
It was a nice day to go out to the Military Cemetery where Charles wanted to be buried. It was a long trip and both Marion and I were remembering stories about how we use to play and little events we did as children growing up back in Iowa. The eight of us children made for some stories and we had to laugh at most of the tales.
We arrived at the entrance to the Cemetery and Bob drove around to where we wanted to go. I had never been to a large town where the larger cemeteries were, and I was surprise to see how large this one was. It reminded me of my third grade teacher who asked the class if they could visualize how much a pile one thousand pennies would look like and how many one dollar bills would it take to make an inch high stack. I was never so impressed, as seeing how far to look in any direction, to know I could not fathom what I was seeing in front of me today.
Through the years, I have watched on TV, when the news would show those who gave the ultimate price returning home in honor and I would give a silent prayer for their family.
As we walked to where Charles' marker was, we read the names, and there was so many and so young. I will always know I could not see the whole cemetery, nor know how many was the count of all who rest there or in all the other cemeteries there are. It is a great price to pay for our freedom. Since then I have a better idea of how to think of what "big" means.
Our family has one Marine and one Air Force member still living today, and I hope it will be quite a while for them before they to will be gone.
I will always think of how a pile of pennies look and how many one dollar bills it takes to make a one inch stack. And how many are at rest in all the Military Cemeteries. Which I still can not imagine how huge it is.
[Editor's note: This story was written by Esther]
ABBOTT, CHARLES H
PFC US MARINE CORPS
WORLD WAR II
DATE OF BIRTH: 05/16/1927
DATE OF DEATH: 12/21/1998
BURIED AT: SECTION M2 SITE 841
HOUSTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
10410 VETERANS MEMORIAL DRIVE HOUSTON, TX 77038
USA Veterans Nationwide Gravesite Locator
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| Houston National Cemetary |
