Anthony Leonard Kurek joined the Navy when he was 17 years old. He served on a ship that was repeatedly hit by suicide Japanese planes. He came home when the war was over, married his sweetheart Helen and raised three good boys, Ron, Dave and Ken. The boys went on to have children of their own--and I can honestly say I am blessed to be one of those children--because you see, Anthony Leonard Kurek is MY Papa :)
Papa's wonderful lady friend Lucy nominated him to go on one of the Honor Flight's over a year ago and he was selected. We welcomed him and 91 other veterans home from their day's trip to our Nation's Capital a few weeks ago in the baggage claim section of Midway Airport. I wish I could describe into words just how awesome it was--but it was one of those moments you just had to BE there to experience it fully. I hope the pictures do it some justice!
Leah made signs for us all to hold!
We shook countless veterans hands and got to say "thank you"--what an amazing honor that was.
Our guy.
We got to thank active duty service men & women from Great Lakes as well, which was so nice!
Papa's cheering section!
Papa & his boys.
Love this pic of Papa & his sweetheart Lucy--we are blessed to have her as part of the family--she brings him so much joy.
Leah & I :)--I have the HONOR of being her Matron of Honor next summer--yes, I know Matron is a nice way of saying OLD! Haha!
1 comment:
I want to thank all of you for coming and surprising me like you did. I sure was surprised. It was nice to see all the beautiful faces of my family and that of Lucy. I'll never forget what a surprise it was to me. I'll cherish it for the rest of my life. It meant so much to me to have all of you there.
Also, thank you Kristen for taking all of these wonderful pictures and for writing such a nice article. Thank you, Leah, for the posters which I really appreciated.
Love and kisses to all of you.
Papa, Grandpa and Dad
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