By far, Normandy was the solemn experience.
The areas that housed the Nazi bomb shelters and where the allied bombs hit, have been kept as they were, showing the effects of what happens in war. It is very sobering to be reminded of the tragedy that rolls out, and encompasses, millions of men, women, children, and the nations of the earth when select men, women, and groups feel they are above the rest and seek to control and dictate their own agenda on the masses. There is a quote I really like, "Absolute power corrupts, absolutely." I know that worse is yet to come before the 2nd coming of the Savior. But we are told, "If we are prepared, we shall not fear." I believe this...I have to believe this.
I was doing pretty well holding my emotions inside until my sister, Pixie, came up to me in the museum, with tears in her eyes, and said, "I just don't know how you are able to do it, with your boys doing what they do." At that time, I had one son most definitely in harm's way, somewhere in the world, for the second time. Another son who had just come home from a year's deployment. We have a 3rd son who has been deployed in harm's way 3 different times. All of them may, and 2 for sure, will be deployed time after time. When they are gone, my prayers are always that "Angels will surround them and protect them." After Pix said what she did, I needed to excuse myself and be on my own. War is not poetic or romantic, it is pain, anguish, and destruction. It hurts.
There are still the signs of the artificial harbor the Allies made. That was a very interesting history lesson!!
The graves go on and on and on, in three directions. It is very sobering, somber. The skies were a beautiful blue, a wonderful Indian Summer day, but my heart hurt. There are those graves that bear the engraving, "Here rests in honored glory, a comrade in arms, known but to God". If we are all looking sober, there is a reason why. There are lessons to be learned and taught, that only a military graveyard of this scope can teach.
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