Just a Moment Please

I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning on the anniversary of the date we last got to hug Spencer. I remember this time seven years ago. I was up late, working on a project deadline. I was sitting at the dining room table, watching Spencer sleep on the couch in the living room. He had been out late, saying some last goodbyes to friends, and he came home and crashed on the couch for the few hours of sleep he would get before that early morning show up for deployment time. As I sat there, soaking in those last moments of having him with us, I was deeply moved by the passing of time. Here was this man, a legal adult, ready to fight for our freedom, and all I could see was a little boy, asking endless questions, laughing at his dad’s Elmer Fudd singing Jim Croce imitations. That little boy turned into a man, and it seems it only took a moment.

On August 6, 2011, our change lives were changed. Our doorbell rang, and in what was a foreshadowing of life to come, Dale opened the door to our new life, a life without our firstborn son. When Dale saw those uniformed officers asking if we were Spencer’s parents, we changed forever, and it only took a moment.

In the last seven years, we have had a lot of moments. Like that moment when we read a letter from a student veteran who received one of our book scholarships. The course of the life of his family was changed by that scholarship, and it only took a moment. Or the many veterans whose lives have changed from the moments they experienced at Warriors’ Ascent, learning some tools to deal with their PTS. Or the group of veterans, formerly homeless, who asked for a flagpole at their new home. Their faces when we said yes. Moments.

On Saturday, August 4, we will gather for a moment. We will run, jog, walk, stroll, skip, sashay, lollygag, and limp our way through 3.1 miles of honoring heroes and celebrating our freedom. We will get to catch up with some of our partners who have demonstrated a commitment to our veteran population. We will hug, some of us will cry, and it is an absolute guarantee I will be an emotional mess. And on that day, and in so many ways, we will Make It Count for our veterans.

Please join us as we all do the work to change lives and bring hope. I promise you, it will just take a moment.

~Megan Moore Duncan