The funeral of a "Hero"

Grayson and I had some errands to run today. On our way to the bank I noticed that the whole downtown of Festus was blocked off. I asked at the bank if they knew what was going on. Through tearful eyes the woman told me it was a funeral procession honoring a soldier named Brandon Wallace who was killed two weeks ago in Iraq. This young man, who had dreams of becoming a police officer and was engaged to be married, was killed for what I beleive is fighting for all of us. Whether you agree or I agree on the war at hand, I do beleive that everything the men and women in the military are fighting for is for me, my kids, my grandkids etc. I will support them, pray for them and continue to honor them. I tried explaining to Grayson how we were going to go downtown so that we too could honor Brandon. I told him that this young man died fighting for our country, died to keep us safe. I explained this was somebody's son, brother, uncle and how his family would miss him terribly but that we should show them how much we appreciate what he has done. So we headed downtown and sat along the sidewalk that was filled with so many people with flags and signs. Normally my impatient two-year old who would be running all over and trying to go in the road stood very still as he watched the helicopter in the air until the procession began and as the hearse carrying the hero approached I placed Grayson's hand over his heart and told him this is what we can do for Brandon. He left his hand over his heart until the entire procession had ended. He didn't scream, yell or get all excited at the site of the motorcylist who were there to drown out the sounds of protesting. He stood still with his hand over his heart as the police cars and fire trucks rode by and we simply stood and paid our respects to Brandon, his family and friends and we too said goodbye to this "hometown hero".