Letter to the Editor

Your View 5/23: Thanks

Friday, May 23, 2003

Hello, my name is Spc. David A. Summers and I am currently serving in the U.S. Army in Tooele Utah, in Operation Noble Eagle 2. I just wanted to say thank you for supporting all U.S. troops involved in homeland security and in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I am a 1986 graduate of Sikeston High School and have family still living in Sikeston.

I just wanted to let them know that I am OK and that my family here is doing great. But most of all, I need to let two certain people know that I'm OK. Their names are Ronnie and Pat Price. Even though they are my aunt and uncle, they have to be the closest thing to real parents that I have. They taught me a lot and kept me out of trouble when needed. I have much respect for and a lot of love for them and the only way to tell them is by this poem that I came up with.

Aunts and Uncles Are Like Sunlit Days

Aunts and uncles are like sunlit days,

Under their bright smiles children bloom.

No parents can remove, in just the ways

That aunts and uncles do, mid-morning gloom.

So when children need some extra love,

Aunts and uncles are like natural springs;

No tap need turn on, nor word need passions move.

Deep down within the sparkling pleasure sings

Until all parents are like Eden's garden.

Never less than innocent perfection,

Children well might learn, before they harden,

Lessons in disinterested affection.

Even as a smile lights a face,

So many aunts and uncles childhood grace.

I don't think they will ever know how much I appreciate them for everything that they have done for me, but I do and always will. They are very important to me and I hope that in my future, I can show love and compassion to my children as they have shown to me.

If there was a award for everything that they have done, I would be the first to give it to them. There is no one like them and there will never be. That is why I consider them the parents that I never had.

My job is almost finished here and I will be going back to California and from there, back to duty overseas somewhere, but I will be in touch and checking on the affairs of Sikeston via computer and the Internet. I would also like to say hello to all those who graduated SHS in 1986.

Spc. David A. Summers, U.S. Army