Annie Lane

Dear Readers: Every Veterans Day, I always remember a woman I once met in an airport. She was sitting quietly by a window, holding a small American flag in one hand and a welcome home sign in the other. The edges of the sign were worn, clearly used more than once.

Her son had been deployed three times. “He says not to make a fuss,” she told me, smiling through tears. “But how do you not make a fuss when your whole heart is finally coming home?”

That is what Veterans Day feels like to me, a moment to make a fuss. To stop and remember that behind every salute, every medal, every folded flag, is a story, a family, a heartbeat.

Some of our veterans came home to parades. Others came home quietly, carrying memories that do not fit into words. Some never came home at all, but their courage lives on in the people who loved them.

Veterans Day is not only for those who wore the uniform, though they are our heroes, our protectors, our strength. It is also for the families who served in their own quiet way, the spouses who kept the lights on, the parents who waited by the phone, the children who learned patience and pride far too young.

Service does not end when the uniform comes off. It continues in every act of kindness, every bit of patience, every calm voice that knows what it means to stand for something larger than yourself. Veterans carry that spirit with them forever.

And their families carry it, too. They are the ones who celebrate every homecoming like it is Christmas morning, who find comfort in folded letters and photographs, who build lives around absence and hope. They are the invisible army of love and resilience that keeps our nation’s promise alive.

I think of the father who missed his child’s first steps, and the mother who came home and quietly went back to work, trying to fit back into a world that kept spinning while she was away. I think of the young man at the grocery store who still stands a little taller when the national anthem plays.

They do not ask for recognition. Most of them will say, “I was just doing my job.” But our job as a nation, as neighbors, as human beings, is to never forget that their job cost them something. Time. Safety. Sleep. And sometimes, a piece of their peace.

So today, let’s make a fuss. Let’s say thank you, not only with flags and parades, but with the way we live our lives. With gratitude. With kindness. With compassion. Let’s teach our children that freedom is not free, it is a gift handed down by those who were brave enough to protect it.

To every veteran and every family who has ever waited by a window with a welcome home sign, we see you, we honor you and we thank you.

Your service made us safer. Your sacrifice made us stronger. And your love of country reminds us all what it truly means to come home.

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