A passing

This has nothing to do with politics or candidates, nor should it.

In World War 2, my wife's grandmother became the first Gold Star mother in Wisconsin. Later she became the first three Gold Star mother. She lost three boys in the conflict and one lost his legs and later took his own life. Two other sons were in that conflict. One passed away five years ago and the last one two months ago. One of her daughters gave birth to the woman who has been my wife for nearly 35 years.

The lines of her family have given the lives of its men to the service and honor of this nation. That tradition carried on with other men and women in the military, even today, with our nieces and nephews in the reserves and regular Army.

It is with great sadness that I note that my wife's mother, part of that long line of women who understood passing of loved ones, has now also passed into the next life, into the loving arms of her Creator and those loved ones who preceded her.

She was 84. Her great heart and loving spirit went in peace. She was the last of that Gold Star mother's children, but that line, that spirit, that stalwart American soul lives on. I see it the woman I love and in our children. It will not fade away.