I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN YOU

Sixty some years ago, I left this shore.
I returned home......you did not.
We did not want to leave you here.
But, we felt you deserved to be buried and honored where you fell.

We have lived full, rich lives.
We've succeeded and failed.
We've loved and lost.
We've aged.....and today, we've returned.

To tell you that you freed these people.
They have prospered and grown,
They have lived free lives.... because of you.

I have thought of you often in all these years.
On cold, dark, snowy nights,
I have remembered how you shivered with me from cold and fright.

I hated to lose you.
More I regretted leaving you.
But, be assured I have never forgotten you.
And, after sixty-odd years, may God hear my plea.

God, hold the soul of this fallen soldier.
He died so others could live.
He fought with pride and with honor
And finally his life he did give.
Protect this soldier forever more,
Find for him a special place,
I've lived my life the best I can
To join You and thank him face to face.


Dedicated with love and pride to my father Walter Horace Barrett, and to the fallen comrades in European Theatre of operations.  March 14, 2004

Leigh Barrett Hege