It all began 16 years ago, in the summer of ’94. Military medals, belonging to my godfather & uncle, Roy Juers of Oyster Bay, had been missing from the family for the better part of 15 years. Then out of nowhere, they miraculously reappeared, through an altruistic gesture by James Knight, an Oyster Bay sanitation worker. Knight had found them on his route, and was kind enough to bring them to the VFW Post 3211 in Hicksville, where VP Timothy Glover sprang into action to track down me, the namesake of the fallen Marine Corporal.
That began a media circus, if you will; a sort of “15 minutes of fame” for my family, at the serendipity of it all. Imagine. No one ever expected to see the medals again, nor were we really even thinking about them. Out of sight, out of mind. And now, 16 years later, it’s hard to imagine them being anywhere but where they are right now, on display on a dedication wall inside my home, where I see them every single day.
Back then, after the initial article was written on August 24, 1994, Knight came forward, and a follow up article was written about him. What hadn’t yet happened was a wonderful ceremony the VFW held in his honor, in which they presented a beautiful plaque to him, a sincere thank-you for protecting the memory of our fallen war veteran. At that time, I’d given the medals back to my father Ken Juers, who’d named me after his 20-year old brother in 1965. In time, I knew Dad would eventually give the medals back to me, in the form of inheritance more so than in gesture.
As probably happens with many situations like this, there are many little miracles that are never written about, and in our case, there were many. We’ll get into those a little later. But alas, the time came for the circle to complete itself, and dad passed away just before Thanksgiving 2009. So Uncle Roy’s medals are with me again now, even thought I didn’t really want them… I’d prefer they were still hanging in Dad’s office, as they were, but life has made one of its dreaded natural progressions, so they’re in my temporary care. A time will soon come when I have to decide their fate.
To be continued…
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