Monday, May 30, 2016

Ace's Mom: Heart Threads

Ace's Mom: Heart Threads: May, the month of memorials: Police Memorial Week followed by Memorial Day. It is a time of feelings; fierce pride, overwhelming sadness,  ...

Heart Threads

May, the month of memorials: Police Memorial Week followed by Memorial Day. It is a time of feelings; fierce pride, overwhelming sadness,  unexpected camaraderie and  lots of love. We see people that we only talk to once a year yet we find that we are connected, connected with threads sewn through our hearts. The thread is made up of our common grief from a staggering loss.
When we are apart, the threads are still there keeping us loosely connected. When we  meet at our memorials, those threads are pulled tight, uniting us in the common pain of heart wrenching loss.
We are stronger for sharing and being together.
Today I ran a 5k in memory of a Marine that lost his life in a motorcycle accident. I usually run to music but in my haste to get out the door, I forgot my headphones so I went "old school" and ran without electronics. I spent my time running talking to Ace, thanking him for all that he has given me; my new found friendships, people that are now in my heart, helping to fill that gap.
I also talked to Josh Harmon, an Army Corporal who lost his life in the middle east. Josh's dad, Rich, is one of those people that is connected by our heart thread. We lost our sons but did gain a wonderful friendship and love, created and nurtured by our sons.
Today the heart threads are tugged tight, helping all of us who have experienced this loss to pull together for strength. Memorial Day is a day to unite and remember. We can also remember with smiles and Josh and Andy would not want it any other way.
God Bless America and Semper Fi.

Ace's Mom~ "There is nothing to be unhappy about"~ Andy "Ace" Nowacki


Sunday, May 8, 2016

Mother's Day

Mother's Day, a day full of love. We celebrate our Moms and all that they have done for us through the years as we remember our childhood as well as our own motherhood. I am blessed to still have my Mom here with us, still feisty and still looking at life from her unique perspective.
I think about my own childhood and what a magical time it was to grow up in the "pre-electronic" era. I am not going to get all preachy about how much better it was to be a kid in that simpler time as this is more about decades of memory, not just a few years in my life.
I think all of us have mementos that we made for our Moms and were made by our own kids in school; cards, pictures, poems and it they went to parochial school, statues of Blessed Mary.
Andy and his brothers usually made cards but I still have a special "coupon book" that Andy made when he was in first grade. The coupons were to be redeemed for various household chores, hugs and kisses. I never tore out any of the coupons to redeem them although I was tempted when Ace was in high school. No expiration date!
I am glad that I still have that coupon book. I look at it often and  even though it brings a smile to my face, it also brings tears to my eyes, especially on Mother's Day.
I am blessed to have three wonderful and loving sons.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who read this and enjoy the celebrations of jobs well done in raising your children!

Ace's Mom ~ "There is nothing to be unhappy about" ~ Andy "Ace" Nowacki


Sunday, May 1, 2016

The Rolex

It's been an emotional week, for sure, and it all started with a trip to the attic. As some of you know, it took me almost a decade to clean out the closet that had some of Andy's clothes and things stored in it so it would come as no surprise that I have not looked in the bin that had "Ace" and a smiley face written in Sharpie along with the dire warning "DO NOT SIT" that had been stored in the attic.
This bin contained Ace's stuff from Iraq. There is a collection of Simpson bobble head figurines that look like they came in a McDonald's happy meal, pictures, Iraqi money and other items that I have not pulled out yet but the eye catching items were the watches.
There is a Marine Corps watch, an expedition watch along with two"Rolex" watches, a man's and a woman's.
If you knew Ace, you know he was a wheeler dealer so the watches could have been part of his bartering. Remember, this is the same guy who traded toothbrushes and Gatorade for chickens so he could have some eggs. Knowing his penchant for a deal, I called Pete, Ace's brother who also deployed to Iraq twice, to see if he might know about the watches. Pete immediately launched into a perfect imitation of an Iraqi man hawking knock off watches to a soldier!
Did I mention that after 11 years in a bin, the watch runs? When I wear it, all I have to do is look at my wrist and that watch brings a smile to my face as I hear Pete's voice and picture Ace.

The other event this week was the completion of a film documentary that began last summer. Two wonderful guys who own a media company, wanted to do a "passion" project about Cleveland and possibly the Cuyahoga River. They were introduced to me as I am one of the old timers that has been rowing on the river for over 20 years.They decided that they wanted to film me rowing , possibly use some parts with me talking about Ace and how rowing keeps me centered. Well, after we talked about Andy, and they saw the videos along with the footage he shot, it became more of a project about Ace and less about the river. I was not surprised. Andy captures the attention of most people that he is introduced to! Last week, we filmed the last sequences which had me reading Andy's letters from the first deployment. I had forgotten how well he was able to capture events along with colorful descriptions of people;Marines, Iraqis, Italians, everyone he met. The letters are funny and at the same time they are also heart- wrenching. Reading them is a lot like having Ace sitting next to me on the couch, relating the stories in person. Oh,what I would not give for that to happen just one more time; a live conversation with Andy.
For now, I will be as content as I can be, re-reading letters and perhaps tackling another box in the attic one day soon. Who knows what other treasures are hidden there?

Ace's Mom
"There is nothing to be unhappy about."~ Andy "Ace" Nowacki