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Today we said a final farewell to our hero soldier. Yesterday we saw him one last time at the funeral home, and hugged on his family again. We were doing ok until Josh’s mom told us that he kept a picture of himself with our son Brett in his locker. I don’t know if this is the same picture, but it’s a good one:

The service today was an emotional one. It started with slideshow images of Josh, friends, and family. There was singing, crying, rejoicing, crying, preaching, crying, and some more crying. Fox 5 of Atlanta was there; kudos to them for showing up and broadcasting it on the 10:00 news in a way that was honoring to Joshua.

I held together pretty well. I’m not usually an overly-emotional person anyway. I was straight-faced on the outside, but I was crying like a baby on the inside. It wasn’t until the 21 gun salute at the grave site that I really broke down. Then the reading of awards and presenting them to his parents really got me, too.

This was the first military funeral I’ve attended. Even more than that, it was the first I’ve attended for a man who gave his life in combat. It was humbling to watch grown men break into tears, hands over their hearts, as that flag-covered coffin was rolled down the church aisle.