How do you remember those you never got to know, who never came home? The ones dragged away from their houses and betrayed by their neighbors.
Is there a photo or two somewhere in an album you can point to and say “that was my grandfather?” Maybe there’s an heirloom on a dusty shelf that reminds you of what could have been.
It’s hard not to think of them when you look at your own child. The family stories that are passed on now have a hole in the center and you are left with your imagination, over and over again, when you so much as whisper a name of one who didn’t return.
Carry them with you in thought and deed, for surely that is the best way to honor them each day. Do unto others what you wish others had done for them.
© 2021 Jeff E. Brown. All rights reserved.
Writing and Photography by Jeff E. Brown 