park and cats

Besides walkways and benched to sit and view the river, the park had one more feature in addition to the fountain: a monument.  You had to walk up a step to the main floor and in the middle, separated by an arch at the top was two round castle type, round stone columns.  For years, they had cuts outs for brass plates, like the name markers you would see in a cemetery.  They finally raised the money for them:  the left one(they were about one and a half by two feet) said; "Lest we forget."  The other one had the names of all the men and women who served in WW II, from Brackenridge, in alphabetical order.  And towards the end were the names of Frank(my dad), Stephen, and Louis Valencic.  All brothers.  And all three of them did not have a star after their name:  if they did did, they were dead, killed in action.  Dad and Steve were in the Navy and Lou was in the Merchant Marines.  Grandma said she prayed for them constantly, and it seemed the ship in front and back of the one they were on got bombed.  No one talked about the wars-not my granddad(who was awarded all kinds of metals) nor any of his three sons.  I guess the horrors they witness were just to much and they would rather forget about them.  Once in awhile, one would let out a few details of what they went through, but rarely.  Supposedly. when my grandfather died, the youngest son grabbed all his metals, including a purple heart and one for bravery-he was a "Sargent," and got his men and himself out of a prison camp. Side Note: I was named after my great grandfather, Andrew.  He and a bunch of others were in a concentration camp-I don't know if it was the Nazi's or in Italy.  One day, they killed everyone in the camp, except a young boy, whose family was already executed, and who the Valencic's adopted, he, along with Andrew, were allowed to live-the oldest and the youngest I suppose.  As I often said, nothing happens in God's world by chance-and because of this act, I am alive, and so are most of you-if you are a Valencic.