“Honor knows no statute of limitations.” ~ Mark Twain

Our Hospice at Home patient faithfully served his country in WWII.  Called up the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, he served in the 224th QM (Quartermaster) Battalion, Salvage Repair Company.  He was involved in the liberation of Dachau as well as numerous other campaigns during the war.  Surviving the war, he never forgot the events that transpired in the Pacific Theater of war even as he shipped out for the European Theater.  One of his life ambitions was to travel to Pearl Harbor and place a wreath in the water to honor all those who died there that fateful day.  Now, with a life-limiting illness, he would never be able to.

Several Hospice at Home staff members were talking one day regarding our patients who have so selflessly served their country and this patient’s desire to visit Pearl Harbor was discussed.  We wondered, could we bring Pearl Harbor to him?  A Hospice at Home staff member called a church in Pearl Harbor and spoke with the pastor regarding the patient’s wish, asking if he could assist us.  The plan:  to place a wreath in the patient’s name in honor of those who had died.  The pastor, himself retired from the service, was eager to help.

On Memorial Day, May 26, 2008, the pastor and his wife visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.  With his wife operating the video camera, the pastor read a brief account of our patients service record, thanked not only him but all those who have served and are serving in the armed forces, prayed for them, and dropped a heart shaped wreath into the waters.  As the wreath hit the water some of the white flowers on it broke away and formed a heart it. 

In addition to recording the laying of the wreath the pastor also recorded a video tour of Pearl Harbor and sent a DVD to our office.  This DVD was given to the patient and his family and, as Hospice at Home staff viewed it with him, his desire to lay a wreath at Pearl Harbor was fulfilled. 

Winston Churchill remarked, "All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."