Chris got up to speak finally at his ceremony and it was very emotional to say the least. These are some pictures of him presenting all his parents and grandmother with flowers for the mothers and coining the fathers and my brother.
Chris presenting the kids with thier own flags and me with my own flowers after he spoke about us as his family, his kids, his wife. Again, very emotional and then it was time to present Chris with his shadow box that he made himself. I had been working hand in hand with the people to put together parts of Chris's ceremony and this one I had to fight for in one area. Chris's father Bill, Father in law, Larry, and brother in law Jay walked down to him with the shadow box and presented it to Chris and then they saluted him. The hard part was letting them salute out of uniform in a military ceremony. However, we found a reg. that made it possible and being My dad Larry and brother Jay were both Veteran's they gave me the green light. It was a awesome moment!
The honor guard presenting Chris with his Grandfather Donahue's WWII Flag from his funeral. Again, If you haven't been part of this type of ceremony before its a very solemn occasion. These are moments in time were you drink it in and you pay respect. This is one of those moments. They read the meaning of the American flag, then the Honor Guard walked down did the flag presentation and then saluted the flag. Then Chris turned around and called up Grandma Tina and presented her back Poppa's flag. I know I keep saying it, but very emotinal and we were all crying.
At the end of the ceremony The Directive Photographer did again what I had asked and took family pictures, needless to say there are some red faces in these pictures because we were all crying. However, there are some really good pictures that he gave me. All these pictures came from the photographer and he did a great job. A huge Thank you to all our Family for coming for the very special time in our lives and always being a huge support to our family. We love you all very much. Next time we are all together will be at Sami's graduation! But that isn't for another year and a half. I hope everyone enjoy's the pictures. Again, we Thank everyone and now Chris has started his civilian life and we start Chapter 2!
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