Monday, November 30, 2009

Visiting our Veterans




Friday, November 20th was spent at the Danville VA Hospital/Health Care Facility. I had the pleasure - honor, really - visiting with Mr. Michael Hamilton, Director of the Illiana Health Care System, and then visiting four different wards. I've visited before over the years, and each time it's humbling to me. These people literally gave their lives to serve our country and keep us safe. What great love and compassion that is.




My Mom has told me about how my grandpas would talk about the USO Girls (they were both Army) and how much it meant to them having those ladies come to visit or sing. Visitors of any kind are really pretty important to our veterans, but for some reason "Beauty Queens" are a real treat and I was happy to be a special visitor for the day. I think I was pretty spoiled actually to get hand shakes, hugs, and even a few kisses from these wonderful people. One gentleman looked just like my Grandpa Zajicek (and he spoke like my Great Grandma Zajicek, which was wild) and I could have sat with him for hours.




Special thanks to Mr. Doug Shouse for arranging my visit as well as taking me around the facility and taking pictures. To Mr. Hamilton for taking the time to meet with me as well, for my very special pen, and for sharing information about the new buildings in progress to give even more freedoms and comfort to our veterans staying with them. And I even got to reconnect with a former high school friend who now works for the hospital in patient care and she walked us around introducing patients, so thank you very much, Suzanne!




VA Mission Statement
To fulfill President Lincoln's promise “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans.
My heart-felt gratitude goes to the men and women who serve and have served our country, and to the men and women who serve our veterans at the VA. God Bless You!




I will have more pictures soon, but here's a couple for now.

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