I pray for my uncle's soul today. My mother's brother. Pray with blurry eyes and tears streaming down my face.
God bless this solitary life. Nobody lives in this world forever, but when the time is taken to imagine what traits would be required, Hilary Burkey could easily fill in as a model.
Captured in the Bataan-Corrigidor area as a young marine of 17, yes 17 is correct, his POW destiny would include 4 seemingly endless, unimaginal years of confinement and almost daily torture. First hand stories of some fellow prisoners are too painful to recount in a public forum.
His body of steel and his will of iron would never give in. The demons planted in his mind would prove, in the end, to never let him break free. He spent the remainder of his 75 years in a veteran's hospital until he, at last, succumbed some years ago. One of my sons carries his name.
He was honored by the Marines and some fellow prisoners at his funeral.
I pray for him today and for the millions of other true heros who pay the fare for the rest of us so that we may enjoy our lives in a way that others who are less fortunate do not.
