The week of Sept 11 Sandy city had a healing field on the front lawn of city hall. There was a flag for each person who lost their life on 9-11. Too see all those flags put a different perspective on it. As i walked through the World trade center portion I kept turning over the cards attached to each flag and seeing the name of a firefighter. I cant name 356 firefighters that I know here in utah, but that is how many were lost from 1 department.
This year they also included a state flag for each military and first responder who lost their life in the line of duty since 9-11. Those flags hurt more to see than any of the others. As we walked through the flags Aidan sat with his arms folded in his stroller quietly watching the flags flutter in the breeze. He reached out and grabbed hold of one flag as we walked past. I stopped to read that card. It said...in grateful honor of Chief Mike Penovich. Out of thousands of flags Aidan only touched Mike's. I LOST IT. I started to cry immediately. I texted the chief's wife my story and she said that he(mike) was never going to make this easy on our hearts.
I walked away feeling that the healing field wasn't so healing for me. It brought up a lot of feelings from both 9-11 and the loss of the chief. But my child has to know what sacrifices were made for us. And that if it happened again those brave men and women of the first responders and military would run into burning buildings again, knowing what could happen.
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