"Flags of Our Fathers"
Lisa Gomez, of Phoenix, loves our nation's flag. Her father served in the army and her son is currently serving as a U.S. Marine. So, while at a flea market a couple of months ago, she bought an American flag. When she got the flag home she discovered a small card within the folded flag, indicating this flag was a burial flag for Donald Peigh, who served in World War II in 1942 and 1943.
Lisa said when she saw that card she knew she couldn't keep it.......it belonged to someone's family. So, she went online and tried for weeks to find Donald Peigh's family. All she knew was that Donald Peigh was born in Hamlet, Indiana.
So she turned to the local CBS television station for help. The station was able to learn that Donald Peigh was buried right here in the valley...in Scottsdale.
So, yesterday, on Memorial Day, Lisa Gomez carried that flag to Donald Peigh's grave site. She thought she'd pay honor to this man, a veteran whose name was tucked into this folded burial flag.
When Lisa finally located Donald Peigh's grave site she was surprised to find a young woman standing there. When she approached, and asked the young lady laying flowers on the grave if she was a relative, she met Donald Peigh's daughter, Patti, who was paying holiday respects to her father.
Lisa, holding that still folded flag, extended her hands and presented the flag to Patti, saying "this belongs to you", then told how it had come into her possession.
Patti Peigh was stunned. For eighteen years, since that flag once rested atop a veteran's coffin, the family had looked for their father's burial flag.
Lisa and Patti stood at Donald Peigh's grave and, for the first time in many years, only happy tears flowed and fell on the grave. Patti said she knew her dad was smiling down from heaven....happy to see two ladies from military families coming together in a rare moment of happiness for a holiday most often marked by grief.
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