Two of my high school classmates

[pat_k]

8. I will never forget my first visit to the wall.

It was about a ten years after it was dedicated, spring of 1992 I think. If that's right, then I was 31.

The people killed in that war that I knew about were generally "once removed" -- friends of friends who were older than me, so I had no great personal loss to mourn there.

I'm not sure what it was that finally undid me. The seemingly endless list of names? The mementos? Photos, cigars, dog tags left at the base of the wall?

It was all so much. But I think what started my tears was a little pooh bear, clearly well-used by a child who was later lost. I had to walk away because my crying was becoming almost hysterical, and what right did I have to such reaction? None of my nearest and dearest were on that wall.

I cried uncontrollably for so, so long. I will never quite understand why I lost it so, but that wall is so, so powerful a reminder of precious lives lost.