Celebrating Heroes

My husband, Frank, is the Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner. Last February he set in motion plans for a tenth anniversary 9/11 memorial honoring living and fallen soldiers since 9/11 who serve, or have served in the PA State Police. He obtained a state trooper honor guard, the National Guard Band of the Mid-Atlantic, the Eighth and I Marine Corps Color Guard, and the following speakers: Adjutant General of the Pa National Guard, Wes Craig; Governor Tom Corbett; and Lt. Col. Oliver North. Frank planned a short speech, as well.

On September first, I listened to him give what one person said was the best speech they ever heard. He recounted how his father, a decorated WWII veteran and POW, who never talked about his imprisonment, often mentioned how he was honored by others when he returned home. Everywhere he went, people bought him drinks and meals. When my husband returned from Viet Nam, he and his fellow vets received no such treatment. They were ignored. Frank didn’t let that bother him. Years later our grandson, Austin, invited him to his middle school celebration honoring veterans. When they gave the Viet Nam veterans a standing ovation, he experienced the public gratitude he had never gotten. It was a defining moment. He told these trooper-veterans that he wanted them to have a defining moment, too. As the saying goes, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

That memorial service was a defining moment for me as well. Living without my husband for the ten months he was in Viet Nam, not knowing whether he would live or die, and bearing our first child without him, were difficult moments in my life. But this commemorative event helped Frank and I connect our past to our present, and in some respects, helped define our future. We can see God orchestrating all the events in our lives, and turning difficult situations into something good.

Frank showed his emotional investment in these troopers when he spoke at this memorial. At that moment he was no longer their boss, he was one of them. He had walked where they walked.

As a fiction writer, I must make the same kind of emotional investment. My readers must make a powerful connection with my characters to be drawn into the story. For them to make that connection, I must be drawn into the story as well. Maybe that’s why fiction writers feel like their characters are real.