September 2001, I was scheduled to leave my then home in Australia for a speaking & book signing tour across America later that month.I can still remember watching the news and not believing what I saw…
“Maybe if I check the Internet, I’ll find it’s all some horrible hoax”, I thought to myself…
What I found when I turned on the computer were streams of emails… “have you heard from my husband” … “has anyone seen my daughter” … “my son was last seen on the 14th floor”…
I was on the other side of the world in Australia, the country I would one day call “home” was being attacked and people I knew only via the internet but had become my friends were desperately trying to find their loved ones…
A few months later I did make that trip to the States, and met so many young men in military gear…
“I’m headed to — – – Air Force Base. We’ve all been called up. No one knows what’s going on but we’re pretty sure we’re about to be deployed,” said one young man I met.
Another in yet another small town said, “all we know is that we need to report for duty, but we’re ready to fight. They can’t do this to us and not expect a fight.”
…and one young man on his way to meet up with his unit who I met at a Greyhound station, “this is America – the land of the free – and if I have to give my life to keep it that way, I will.”
Move forward to the present day when I now proudly and passionately live in the United States…
On the eve of Memorial Day, I say to all the men and women (of both Australia and America) who have given so much to protect this land we love, “thank you”… With all my heart, thank you.
One day each and every one of us will be dust, that’s just the way it is, but my prayer is that your honor and dedication to our Freedom live on well beyond your years.
God Bless America, my home sweet home…
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