A
Father
and
His
Son...
A story of Respect, Loyalty and
the Transcending Power of Love
BY FREYA PRUITT
Look at these two men. Don’t they look alike?
Look at their eyes. Look how proud they are of
each other. The bond is so obvious, so strong, so
loving. There is nothing quite like the love between father and son. It is truly that “man” thing.
No matter how much a mother loves her son, she
cannot BE a father.
These two men are NOT biologically linked.
However, they served a very profound purpose in
each other’s lives. Jordan’s biological father died
when he was fifteen. His entire world was shattered. His heart sank deep into a pit of depression, drugs and alcohol. No matter what I did,
no matter how much I loved him, he desperately
needed that grounding strength only a father can
give his son. This living “horror” lasted twenty
years. It continued and permeated a seventeen
year marriage to my beloved husband Reggie. It
was hard to see in the beginning, but these two
men shared a lot of the same traits. Reggie was a
highly decorated Viet Nam Veteran and suffered
with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) his
entire life. He was a great man. He really never
received his due honor until the relationship between he and Jordan fully matured.
Reggie lost his medals in a fire thirty years ago. I
urged him to contact the pentagon and retrieve
them. This took many years, but when that box
arrived at our front door, he quietly opened it in a
room all by himself. He emerged a few hours later
with a blank look on his face. Looking back, in
26 Woman
The County
Magazine
some ways, I wish he had NOT gotten them back.
On the other hand, when he took his medals to
the hospital to show my son Jordan, he experienced something so precious it is hard to describe.
When we entered the hospital, father and son
hugged each other and slapped each other on the
back as they always did. Jordan would just light
up like a Christmas tree when he saw his dad.
And, so did his dad! I always kidded them, maybe
I shouldn’t visit because it was like I was not even
in the room! When Jordan saw the box his dad
was carrying, he stepped back and said, “Dad! Is
that THEM? Are those your medals?” Reggie
never said a word - he just handed the case to
Jordan. For the rest of my life, I will never forget
what transpired between those two men. Jordan
got down on the floor and took each medal out
of its case, like a baby bird, and lovingly touched
them. He was absolutely in awe. He had such
honor for his dad, for his service in Viet Nam.
But when he saw the bronze star, the purple heart,
the Viet Nam medal of honor, and so many more,
he looked up at his dad and said, “Dad! I am so
proud of you.” At that exact moment, both men
received from each other what they had been
missing for so many years.
Jordan stayed on his knees for about an hour.
Only after he opened each case individually,
touched it, and acknowledged his dad, did he
stand up. Both men had tears in their eyes. They
hugged each other as Jordan whispered, “Oh
Dad, I am so proud of you. I love you.” Reggie
responded in kind; “I love you too, son. I am so
proud of YOU!”
Reggie died eight months later, while Jordan was
still in the hos