Susan and all the other Obers, I thought a lot about all of you last Saturday. I KNOW Pete went to the Citadel rather than VMI, but still, being on the VMI campus for the first time, I thought of Pete. When you exit the Museum for the Campus Tour (led on this occasion by a female cadet), one of the first things you see are 2 walls filled with plaques. These are in remembrance of VMI students and graduates who either died while students, or in the service of their (our) country. There are a lot of them, some very old, and it is a moving sight. I couldn't help but think that there is probably something like that at the Citadel, and that there is/should be a plaque there for Pete. I know, sort of convoluted, but I just wanted you to know that, as July 16 approaches, I am thinking of all of you.
Marylee,
it is great to hear from you! I think your reasoning is not at all convoluted... I cannot count the times I have been reminded of Pete in times of no apparent concrete reference. Yet VMI is the only college, besides The Citadel, to which Pete applied. There are unmistakable similarities among the students and graduates of both. Indeed, Madeline's new stepfather, Paul... a young man I like and admire, is a graduate of VMI and serves in the Marine Corps.
Though I have not been back to see it, I am pretty certain that The Citadel has Pete's name on such a plaque as you describe. Also, there is a large Memorial Wall, here in Jacksonville, that bears the names of veterans who have died in service to our country. A couple of years after Pete died, a new panel was added to allow the names of those who have given their lives during conflicts since the Viet Nam War. Pete's name is on it. Alas, they ran out of space for names again; a second additional panel of black granite was added this year.
Marylee, thank you for writing and thank you for remembering Pete. I do feel a crescendo of emotion as the anniversary approaches. I don't know if that will ever change... or should change. I think it is my job as his mother to NOT, ever, "get over it". I have a hole in my heart forever. But I try to be better and richer both for his life and his death. If I had lived my life with half the passion he had each day of his own short life, there is no telling what I might have accomplished as an artist by now. The most significant work I've done has been accomplished in the shadow and the light cast by his death.
