This was written on 31/5/11
And then I cried and didn't post it. So now I am.
*********************************************************************************
I found Rich's dogtags today. Both sets. I want to send BG one set, and keep a set for the AC, because that seems fair to me. I have no idea where she is now though, so I'll hang on to them until one day.
Looking at the two sets though, they make me proud. They make me feel honoured to have been part of his life. They make me feel proud of the fact that he served, and that we served behind him, supported him, gave him a safe place to return to, made his life easier, not harder. They remind me of every parcel, every email, every phone call, every msn, everything that we did to encourage him whilst he was away. I looked in his gorilla box today. A box that, last time we looked at it, he had just come back from the 'Stan. But I looked, and it still smelled of him, and still had his books in, and had every e-bluey, every card, every note, that I had ever sent him. Everything. He threw nothing away.
He has two sets because he finally persuaded the MOD to recognise his faith, as a practising druid. I backed him up all the way to get it done, and I always tried to support him in his faith. Just because it was different to mine doesn't make it wrong. There are no definites when it comes to God. He's not a tame lion.......
I've found photos of BG as a little one, of her just before she was taken away to the States, I suppose they are her passport ones, and one of the She-Ex as a youngster, with her mother. When she was younger, and less bitter, less hatefilled, she was a pretty girl. And she's younger than me, but last time I saw a picture of her, she looked older.
I've kept them all anyway, to go in her box. One day she'll get it. I've had no contact from anyone there, so *shrug* I guess they don't want anything of his and they want to forget he ever existed, unless there is money involved. But I've found some other cool stuff today that I hadn't forgotten, but didn't remember, like his armourers coin, and little bits of things like that. The AC is most impressed.
And more photos of him. And us.
