For the past few years on the 4th of July, I’ve joined a group of volunteers to sing patriotic songs to the veterans at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, CA. I love to sing and it’s an easy way for me to offer a tribute to the brave veterans who have served in the military.
The afternoon is always an emotional experience for me as we walk around to the different units in the hospital. We stand at the nurse’s stations, outside patient’s rooms and always start by singing “Thank You for Your Service” with these poignant words.
It’s a simple melody that stays in my head for hours after we finish singing. We sing the song in a 4-part round and the harmony is so beautiful that inevitably I get so choked up, I can barely sing. As I look around at the faces of the vets, young and old, I wonder what they were like as vibrant young soldiers volunteering to serve our country.
Our leader provides a songbook with some classic patriotic songs — The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, America the Beautiful and This Land Is Your Land. The songbook also includes songs for each branch of the military — Anchors Aweigh, Army Song, Marine’s Hymn and Air Force Song.
When we get to the Air Force Song, I feel more tears sliding down my cheeks remembering my father who served as a tail gunner in World War II. Fortunately, he survived the war after flying sixty missions and lived a wonderful life, but he’s been gone for 20 years.
Today I had another reason to cry. One of my dear GaGa Sisters, Janada Clark, was not standing by my side in the alto section to provide a strong voice for me to sing the harmony. Janada passed away on April 26, 2017 after a brief and courageous battle with cancer. I felt her presence today and remembered how devoted she was to serving the vets in her community.
Spending two hours of my July 4th holiday didn’t take much effort on my part, but the gift of seeing smiles on the vets’ faces was truly priceless. I encourage you to visit veterans in your community. Often, they don’t have many visitors and they really appreciate it when people remember them.
Thanks for the compliment and interesting story about Rob’s service. We sing at 1:30 pm on July 4th. We also sing Christmas carols on December 25 at 9 am. I’d love to have you join us for either day.
What a wonderful way to spend the 4th. What time do you go? (We always take the grands -Charlie this year- to the parade in RWC) – But I’d love to join you – not that I sing that well, but I find that patriotic songs are probably in my key because I do best with those.
Wow I’m impressed by the service of your dad’s. Our son retired after 20 in the Air Force and I love that song. But he only saw “action” during the Panamanian action, if you call it that. Actually Carmen ( his fiancee at the time) did a little uncover work then too and was decorated as a civilian for that.
Rob was commanding a small base in South Korea at the time of 9/11 and he said somehow he felt that he had failed the country by it happening and he had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. That’s how dedicated all Veterans were at the time of their service.
Kudos to you for honoring them.
Hugs, Diane