The day that will live in infamy, my Grandmother Gladys once saw the Arizona.

I don't recall my grandmother being a really political person, maybe she was and maybe she wasn't I do not recall. My father always has been as he loves history in general, and he gave me the love of it so maybe she was, I just don't know.  She went to Samoa when I was 9 and 3/4 and had occasion to go to Hawaii many times.  She told me that on one of those trips, and lay overs, she had made time to go see the Arizona and the memorial there.  She was awe inspired.  She told me about it once and she relayed to me that it was the most inspirational places she had ever been.  She described the ominous feeling of God when she stood at the memorial in the harbor.  She said she never felt the power of God any more clearly than in the moment she stood there.  She had been diagnosed with her cancer at the time but I don't think that is what she felt.  I think she felt the spirit of God in a place where only God could make a difference to the loss of so many souls.  She felt the self sacrifice and heroism of those long past men and women.  She said she knew that heaven existed beyond a doubt because she could feel the essence of it there.  I, myself, have never got to go to any war memorials, I would love to go to a battle field and have since the moment she told me of the Arizona.  I would so like to feel the power of heaven on earth.  Today I am thankful for the souls that were lost that day, and the days that followed.  Freedom is never free and we in this country have so many past hero's that have given so much for our country and all that we enjoy here. We were given the rights we have, on the back of all of the fallen, and the war hardened ones that fought and died for us and our way of life.  Today I remember my grandmother, Gladys, and the Arizona.... tomorrow.