We have sadly said good bye to Wally and Pam and “ciao” to Carol as Steve and I head to the Puglia region of Italy (think achillies heel area of the ‘boot’).
Carol’s request was to seek an American cemetery south of Rome where her Uncle Albert was supposedly buried. He was one of the many brave soldiers who came to Italy via Sicily and fought up the peninsula to recapture this land from the Germans in 1943 & 44. He was one of many, many casualties.
It was about this time that Mussolini was disenfranchised from Hitler and Italians in general didn’t want to fight anyone (and they actually changed sides).
There are (too) many fields of crosses where soldiers lay. Anywhere a U.S. soldier falls, our country knows and keeps track and honors them. There is not a blade of grass not manicured or a marker that isn’t gleaming here in Nettuno, or Florence, or Normandy or….
The dear people who watch over this particular facility knew just where to find Uncle Albert and we were escorted to the site and given Italian and American flags to place into the lawn at his grave.
It was a special and moving moment for us all, but for Carol it brought tears. She had told her family members she would find her mother’s lost older brother, but she cried because she couldn’t tell her mom. Mom passed away last week.