A veteran who bought an old flag at a yard sale felt compelled to drive halfway around the country to give it back to its rightful owner.
Douglas Sanders considered himself a happy man most of the time, except when he had to accompany his wife Debbie to yard sales, street markets, or antique fairs.
The truth is that Debbie was a junkie, and Douglas was happiest in his man cave doing what a man ought to do in his man cave– bad woodwork and reminiscing over old times. But one day Douglas saw something extraordinary at a yard sale, and it changed his mind.
Douglas Sanders never imagined finding such a treasure in a yard sale | Source: Shutterstock.com
Douglas and Debbie had spent most of their 35 years together moving around to whichever base he was transferred to. In a way, Debbie’s fascination with other people’s memories of ordinary life made sense.
Debbie had lived all over the world as the wife of a Navy Seal officer, and so her life had been anything but ordinary. Not exciting either, just extremely stressful. While Debbie stayed home and raised the kids, her heart jumped every time someone knocked on the door.
As a military wife, Debbie knew it could be someone official delivering bitter news in a respectful tone, thanking her for her sacrifice for her country… Now that Douglas was retired, Debbie had finally confessed how much she hated the Navy.
“Douglas, you have no idea how much I hated that blasted Star-Spangled Banner, how frightened I was every time you went on a mission, and I received a letter from you with half of the writing blacked out.”
“You never said…” cried Douglas, appalled. “You were always so supportive!”
Douglas had spent his career serving his country around the world | Source: Pixabay
“Well, Douglas,” said Debbie. ” Army wives and army mothers — we all hate war, we all hate the army, or the navy or the airforce, but it’s part of loving you, so we put up with it.”
And so, even though Douglas hated yard sales, street markets, and antique fairs, he went along and oohed at the appropriate moments, because that is what you do when you love someone. You embrace their passions, just like Debbie had embraced the Navy.
That particular day, one of their neighbors from three streets over, Jim Kanaro, who had just moved...
