With blood dripping down his face and a needle poking and pinching his forehead he didn’t even flinch. He just sat there, staring at the wall behind me while I stitched his forehead back together. Cutting the little bit of of string left from the stitches, I had said “Well, you’re all good now.” I pulled my hands away from his forehead and Doris Miller put his white U.S. navy hat back on his head. Doris got on his feet and told me ‘Thank you.’ with a strong, courageous look on his face. The same look that he had the whole time he had been in this hospital.

“How’d you get that?” I asked.
“Fight.” Doris said.
“Did you win?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“What do you get out of winning?”

Doris paused for a moment, but finally said “Respect.” in a soft voice. He was a very kind man from what I could tell. All he wanted to do was to fight for his country and get the respect that he deserved.

I looked down at the ground not knowing what to say. He was a perfectly good man with a kind heart. Did he really have to fight to get respect?

Suddenly, I heard a car stop right in front of the hospital. I tilted my head back up and Doris nodded his head and walked away. The back door of the car opened and I saw Danny step out of the car. His hat was off, but as soon as his feet touched the ground his hat met his head again. He started walking toward me with a look on his face. I could just tell by the look on his face that he had bad news. What kind of bad news could he have had? But before Danny had reached me I had realized that it was Rafe.

How could this happen? Bad things usually don’t happen to me and now I have lost the love of my life. Rafe was too sweet, kind, caring and handsome to die.

Danny reached me and pulled me close to his chest. With tears rolling down my face I didn’t know what to do other than cry on Danny’s shoulder. From here on out, Danny was the thing that I had left of Rafe. Danny was Rafes best friend, and for all I could imagine, Danny was hurting like I was.

For the next couple of days it was silent. No one pushed my buttons or pissed me off. Everyone was being kind to me. The hospital was even more depressing than it had ever felt. It was more empty than it had ever been. But my heart was what was really empty. For I had no one to love anymore. No one to share my stories with and no one to listen to my problems. Rafe was gone and a part of me was gone too.