I am lucky.
No one in my immediate family died in military service to our country.
Not my dad. Not my uncles. Not my cousins. Not their children.
Other families are not so lucky.
Today, my thoughts are with them, the ones left behind when their loved ones sacrificed everything.
I don’t care if the cause was “just” or not. The sacrifice remains, and the service is worthy of honor and respect.
If you served, I thank you.
If someone in your family served, I am grateful for their service.
And if someone close to you, a brother, mother, father, or child, died during their military service, I know that nothing can fill that hole left behind by their loss. Especially not the well wishes of some random stranger on the Internet musing about Memorial Day.