The Wall

It's always a moving experience to visit the travelling Wall. The last time one came around, it was set up in a field that later became Old Settlers' Park. It was half the size of the one in Washington, and the names were just printed on it. This one is awesome, three quarters the size of the original, and the names are all engraved. This makes rubbings possible. The tributes always get me. Everything from roses to photos and notebooks; one person even left a Purple Heart. Way down at the left-hand end, there was a single can of Bud. All the tributes will be put into a display a few feet away from where the wall was displayed. Did I mention that it was set up in the Cook-Walden cemetery?

Everybody cried, even the politician who was the keynote speaker. The speaker who brought down the house, though, was an 80-year-old lady whose son was killed in Viet Nam. The story she told, about having recovered his remains, bit by bit, over 35 years, was enough to make a stone statue cry. And, the whole time she spoke, a pair of butterflies danced in the air over her head, over the flags and over the wall, itself.

Some individual singers and the Austin Symphonic Band provided music.

At the end, doves were released.