Our son, Blaize, recently graduated from tech school and came home on leave from the USAF. His first duty station is in Salt Lake City, Utah. Yesterday was bittersweet because I had to say goodbye again–something I dislike immensely as I’m sure most parents do. His flight left at six and so we left at the very last second to head to Pittsburgh International Airport. He wanted that extra time to spend with his siblings. We hit traffic and I was sweating a little bit, but we were at the airport a little after 4pm. He wore his uniform so that they’d waive all the extra baggage fees and he flew Southwest, which was good because I heard what Delta did to a Marine coming home from Afghanistan.
The people at Southwest were wonderful. They went above and beyond for my son and offered my youngest son and I passes to go to his gate with him. The security line was very long, however, a TSA agent took my son and his family to the head of the line. No one grumbled or groaned because he was getting special treatment. In fact, through the crowd there were people saying, “Thank you for your service, son.” to which Blaize eloquently replied, “Thank you for your support!” with a huge smile on his face and he added sir or ma’am. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen people reach out to our men and women in uniform, but this was the first time I witnessed them doing it for our son.
I’m incredibly proud of Blaize and of our son-in-law Wes, who is in the USMC or ‘Ooohsmic’ as my husband teased him. But I’m also proud and grateful with how society sees our military now. I think of all the veterans who weren’t thanked over the years randomly for their service.
We ate at TGI Fridays in the airport and as we were walking in, more people told my son thank you. I got teary eyed and Blaize just winked at me. We ate and chatted and then it was time to head to his gate. I asked the waiter for our bill and he said, “Ma’am, the man who was sitting behind you already paid your bill.”
He is the faceless stranger that I never got to say ‘thank you’ too and of course being the emotional suck I am, I started to cry and of course that made it harder to say good-bye to my kid.
Maybe one day when he has children of his own, he’ll understand why I get so emotional when people are so kind to him. I love him unconditionally and I am so proud of the man he is becoming. He loves the USAF. He loves his job and is looking forward to his new endeavors, so when someone–a complete stranger reaches out to him because his main job is to protect his country, well that just put the tear ducts into action. Besides, I thought saying good-bye to him would get easier in time. Nope, just got harder.
So, here’s to the man that bought my sons and me dinner yesterday. Here’s to anyone out there who has done something like this. I plan on paying it forward. One day, we shall be the mysterious person who paid for a soldier’s meal. It sure brightened our day and restored some faith in humanity for all of us and the smile on Blaize’s face and the goosebumps on his arms made it that much more special.