An Unlikely Partner in Patriotism

It's no great secret. Anyone that knows me well is aware of the rocky relationship I have had with my mother-in-law. She: native Texan with a capital T:  pig-headed stubborn, authoritative, and uber-opinionated. Me: independent, overly sensitive, stubbornly reluctant to bow down to her dictates, and determined to maintain my "Yankee" identity. We've had many falling-outs throughout the years and a huge family scandal involving the paternity of my eldest brother-in-law almost tore the family apart. Conversations mainly consisted of her lecturing me, but occasionally led to her reminiscing about her life in the military.


She was in the Air Force from 1952 to 1958 and met my father-in-law as he was entering the Air Force and as she was leaving. I knew that they were married on July 4; hence, this has always been her favorite holiday. She proudly displays the flag 365 days a year by her garage and decorates the outside and inside of her house patriotically every July 4.


We took the kids to visit her today, July 4. When we arrived, she met us at the door dressed in a bright, red shirt and and blue pants. We retired to the living room after dinner and I noticed the old photo albums on the hearth. My curious nature got the best of me and I asked my mother-in-law if I could look through them. It turned into a lovely, sentimental trip down memory lane for her and into one of the most touching moments she and I have ever shared. We looked at old black and white photos of her flight school class and Air Force promotional photos taken of her (she was quite a looker back in the day). I listened captively as she told me stories of seeing Bing Crosby while she was in flight school in Palm Beach and of the time she met Henry Ford II, a faraway look in her eyes as if these events had happened just yesterday.


That one moment created and sealed a permanent bond between us. Here she was, a true patriot that gave six years of service to our country, and countless more as she raised three sons, sometimes on her own, as her husband traveled around the world on various missions. I was sitting next to someone who knows what it means to be a patriot.


We wrapped up our trip to my husband's home town with a visit to his father's grave. I had known for years that my mother-in-law puts a flag and a bouquet of red, white, and blue flowers on my father-in-law's grave every July 4, but we hadn't visited his grave since his death in 2000. After we paid our respects, my son and daughter wandered around the cemetery, looking at the other graves. It is a very small cemetery, but we found countless graves of American heroes...veterans of WWI, WWII, the Vietnam and Korean Wars, and sadly, the current war in Iraq. I discussed with my kids the indescribable sacrifice these men made in order for us to live in the greatest country in the world.


Fascinated by my father-in-law's world travels, I once asked him what his favorite country was. His reply: the United States of America.