Recently I had the honor and privilegeof meeting a Gold Star Mother. I only had a vague idea of what this group is and does, but found the spirit of the organization in the mother of Spec 4 William Gleixner, killed in action in Vietnam, February 2, 1968. I didn't even really get her name, but that was only because her focus was on others.
She told me about her son, and the other military members whose pictures spanned a three-board display at the event I was attending. She talked about the other mothers whose heartbreak mirrored her own. But she talked not about how they wallowed, but what they do to continue to help others, which is their mission. She spoke proudly of the group and the other moms. To be a member of the organization you must be a mother whose son or daughter served and died while in the service of the Armed Forces of the USA or its Allies, or died as a result of such service. There is of course more to it, but that's the basis.
It was so moving to talk to her. Unfortunately I do know what it is like to have a child die, even though under much different circumstances. Though for her it has been 41 years, and for me, nearly 34, the reality of it is something that forever tucks itself inside your heart, and never quite goes away. But to help someone else fight through grief and do something constructive with the heaviness of it is truly remarkable.
Mothers still do make the world go 'round, and these moms are a huge, though humble, important part of that "machine." For more information, go to the website, www.goldstarmoms.com.
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