<sappy alert>

On August 1st Angela Carella from the Stamford Advocate visited my mom’s home to talk to me about Bud and what his return meant to our family. We spent most of that time talking about Anna and how she must have been dealing with this event. The thing is, I don’t really know how she was dealing with it.   As her health declined over the past few weeks and she was unable to communicate, I just kept trying to reassure her that we would take good care of him and I’d drop little details about the funeral and how incredibly respectful the Army has been, etc., not really sure whether she wanted to know them or not. 

On Sunday, August 6th Bud’s story was told in the Advocate, as well as his updated obituary. Here’s a link to each:

Article: http://m.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/WWII-airman-returns-for-Stamford-burial-74-years-11735722.php

Obituary: http://m.legacy.com/obituaries/stamfordadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=patrick-byrnes&pid=186295199&referrer=0&preview=True

I heard a quote recently that said we all die twice. The first time when our heart stops beating, and the second time when our name is spoken for the last time. Thanks to the Army, Bud’s name will be spoken so many more times, and future generations will speak his name. 

And then, on the same day as her brother gets to keep living, the darndest thing happened:

Anna’s heart stopped beating. 

I will never know if this was the “closure” she was waiting for, or if she could finally be “at peace”. I just know that she died, and I’m heartbroken. 

And I’m not even done telling his story yet, which only had a 23-year span.  But now I feel a strong need to tell her story as well, an amazing 99-year one, to be sure. And I will, and my kids will, and her nieces and nephews will…so that she never dies again.