My Uncle Bud holds a special place in my heart. Though he died in 1944, I know that he was a great hero. My grandmother told me so 36 years ago on a sunny Memorial Day morning, a morning that began with a parade…
I leaned against an oak tree at the side of the road, wishing I was invisible. I kept my distance from my parents who were sitting on lawn chairs, drinking coffee from a thermos. My younger siblings scampered about.
I hoped none of my friends saw me there. God forbid they caught me waving one of the small American flags that Mom had bought at Ben Franklin for a dime. At sixteen, I was too old and definitely too cool for our small town’s Memorial Day parade. “I should be at the lake…” I brooded. But no, the all-day festivities were mandatory in my family.
A high school band marched by, the girl in sequins missing her baton as it tumbled from the sky. Firemen blasted sirens in their polished red trucks. The uniforms on the troop of World War II veterans looked too snug on more than one of them.
“Here comes Mema,” my father shouted. Five black convertibles rolled down the boulevard. The mayor was in the first, handing out programs. I didn’t need to look at one. I knew my uncle Bud’s name was printed there, as it had been every year since he was killed in Italy. Our Family’s war hero. And I knew that perched on the backseat of one of the cars, waving and smiling, was Mema, my grandmother. That morning she wore a lavender suit and matching pumps. There was a corsage pinned on her lapel. On her car door, in gold embossed letters was a sign that read: “Gold Star Mother.”
I hid behind the tree so I wouldn’t have to meet her gaze. It wasn’t because I didn’t love her or appreciate her. She’d taught me how to sew, to call a strike in baseball. She made great cinnamon rolls which we always ate after the parade. What embarrassed me was all the attention she got for a son who had died so many years earlier. With four other children and two dozen grandchildren around, I couldn’t figure out why this was such a big deal every year.
I peeked out from behind the tree just in time to see Mema wave and blow my family a kiss as the motorcade moved on. The purple ribbon on her hat fluttered in the breeze.
The rest of our Memorial Day was equally scripted. No use trying to get out of it. I followed my family back to Mema’s house , where there was the usual baseball game in the backyard and the same old reminiscing about Uncle Bud in the kitchen. Helping myself to a cinnamon roll, I retreated to the living room and plopped down in an armchair.
There I found myself staring at the army photo of Bud on the bookcase. The uncle I’d never known. I must have looked at him a thousand times-so proud in his crested cap and knotted tie. His uniform was decorated with military emblems that I could never decode. Funny, he was starting to look younger to me as I got older. Who were you Uncle Bud? I nearly asked aloud.
I picked up the photo and turned it over. Yellowing tape held a prayer card that read: “Lloyd ‘Bud’ Heitzman, 1925-1944. A Great Hero.” Nineteen years old when he died, not much older than I was. But a great hero? How could you be a hero at nineteen?
The floorboards creaked behind me. I turned to see Mema coming in from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. I almost hid the photo because I didn’t want to listen to the same 
stories I’d heard year after year. Your uncle Bud had this little rat terrier named Jiggs. Good old Jiggs. How he loved that mutt! He wouldn’t go anywhere without Jiggs. He used to put him in the rumble seat of his Chevy coupe and drive all over town. Remember how hard Bud worked after we lost the family farm? At haying season he worked all day, sunrise to sunset, baling for other farmers. Then, he brought me all his wages. He’d say, “Mama, someday I’m going to buy you a brand-new farm. I promise.” There wasn’t a better boy in the world.
Sometimes I wondered about that boy dying alone in a muddy ditch in a foreign country he’d only read about. I thought of the scared kid who jumped out of a foxhole in front of an advancing enemy, only to be downed by a sniper. I couldn’t reconcile the image of the boy and his dog with that of a stalwart soldier.
Mema stood beside me for a while, looking at the photo. From outside came the sharp snap of an American flag flapping in the breeze on the front porch. I could hear the voices of my cousins cheering my brother at bat.
“Mema, Why was Uncle Bud a hero?” I asked.
Without a word, she turned and walked down the hall to the back bedroom. I followed.
She opened a bureau drawer and took out a small metal box, then sank down onto the bed.
“These are Bud’s things,” she said. “They sent them to us after he died.”
She opened the lid and handed me a telegram dated October 13, 1944. “The Secretary of State regrets to inform you that your sond, Lloyd Heitzman, was killed in Italy.”
Your son…I imagined Mema reading that sentence for the first time.
“Here’s Bud’s wallet,” she continued. Even after all those years, it was caked with dried mud. Inside was Bud’s driver’s license with the date of his sixteenth birthday. I compared it with the driver’s license I had just received. A photo of Bud holding a little spotted dog fell out of the wallet. Jiggs. Bud looked so pleased with his mut.
There were other photos in the wallet; a laughing Bud standing arm in arm with two buddies, photos of my mom and aunt and uncle, another of Mema waving. This was the home Uncle Bud took with him, I thought. I could see him in a foxhole, taking out these snapshots to remind himself of how much he was loved and missed.
“Who’s this?” I asked, pointing to a shot of a pretty dark-haired girl.
“Marie. Bud dated her in high school. He wanted to marry her when he came home.”
A girlfriend? Marriage? Bud’s life, plans and hopes for the future had been brutally snuffed out.
Sitting on the bed, Mema and I sifted through the treasures in the box: A gold watch that had never been wound again. A sympathy letter from President Roosevelt and one from Bud’s commander. A medal shaped like a heart, trimmed with a purple ribbon. And at the very bottom, the deed to Mema’s house.
“Why is this here?” I asked.
Because Bud bought this house for me.” She explained how after his death, the U.S. government gave her ten thousand dollars, and with it she built that house she was still living in.
“He kept his promise,” Mema said in a quiet voice.
For a long while, the two of us sat there on the bed. Then, we put the wallet, the medal, the letters, the watch, the photos and the deed back into the metal box.
I finally understood why it was so important for Mema-and me-to remember Uncle Bud on this day. If he’d lived longer he might have built that house for Mema or married his high-school girlfriend. There might have been children and grandchildren to remember him by. As it was, there was only that box, the name in the program, and the reminiscing around the kitchen table.
“I guess he was a hero because he gave everything for what he believed,” I said carefully.
“Yes child,” Mema replied, wiping a tear with the back of her hand. “Don’t ever forget that.”
I haven’t. Even though Mema is gone and I am now in my early fifties, I still take my lawn chair to the tree-lined boulevard on Memorial Day. My two college aged daughters always come with me. It’s their job to pass out small american flags to my extended family which now includes many of Mema’s great grandchildren. As the veterans of war march past us, dressed in uniform,we all clap and cheer.
While proudly waving our little flags, we hold the stories of Uncle Bud in our heart. He taught us that life isn’t just about getting what you want. Sometimes it involves giving up the things you love for what you love even more. That a man lay down his life for his friends was how Christ put it. That many men and women did the same for their country.
And if I close my eyes, I can still see Mema in her regal purple hat, honoring her son, a true American hero.
[Reprinted with permission from Guideposts. Copyright © 1999 by Guideposts. All rights reserved. www.guideposts.com]
