This Is Life

Memorial Visits

September 1955

I held Flora close as she cried in my arms. "Daddy and I will be back in a few days baby girl. And I know you're going to have a great time with Grandma and Uncle Oliver while we are gone."

"I don't want you to go."

"We have to though princess. And we will be back before you know it." I kissed her forehead and continued to hug her. Donny was having a similar conversation with Michael. The two of us were taking a trip to the Philippines. For the first time ever I was going to see Manila. I was nervous, I was worried. But I knew I would be fine with Donny beside me. Or at least I hoped I'd be fine. I know how painful this trip would also be for him. I handed Flora to Ma and Donny handed Michael to Oliver and I gave my son a quick kiss on the forehead. "We love you both so much and we will be home soon. Have fun with Grandma and Uncle Oliver okay. They love you just as much as we do."

"I love you Flo and Mike. And mommy and I won't stop thinking about you. We're going to miss you so much the next few days." I grabbed Donny hand as he took the bag with our luggage in. We slowly walked out the door.

"Bye bye." Flora and Michael said in unison. I turned back and waved before closing the door.

"We will get thought this Julia. It's going to be a rough few days. But we will get though this together. And I think taking this trip will be good for us, both though the difficulties were going to face, but also having some quality time together without the twins. Those two have flipped our world upside down, I wouldn't change it for anything, I love the life we have with our family. But it's important we spend time just us too." I nodded and we got in the street car that was taking us to the train station, which would take us to the airport. We had a flight to Washington, then one to Japan and finally the flight to the Philippines. It would be over 24 hours of travel either way, and then we had two days in Manila.

~~~~~

We arrived and were exhausted from travelling for so long but we knew it would be worth it. We'd been discussing travelling here for a while but then we had the twins and didn't want to leave them for five whole days while they were so young. Last year we decided that we would go there for the 10 year anniversary of the war ending. I couldn't believe it had been over 11 years since I lost Michael and 10 years since I met Donny and began to fall in love with him. The last 10 years had truly been amazing and I wouldn't change it for the world. I had Donny, Flora and Mike now and they were my everything. Especially Donny. I'd told him back then I didn't need saving. But I did, and I just didn't realise it. He saved me though, and he showed me how to love again. We called Ma to let her know we'd arrived safely and she said she'd let the twins know.

"You ready to head to the cemetery?" Donny said standing in front of me after arriving and settling into the hotel room. He held his hands on my arms and looked down at me lovingly and kissed my forehead.

"Yeah. As long as you stay by my side."

"I won't leave you without permission. That's a promise. Because I'm sure at some point you'd like some time to be alone with Michael." I looked up and gave him a soft kiss before going to our bag. I took out the box with dog tags in and put the chain around my neck. I held them tightly in my hand and closed my eyes. I then looked up at my husband to see he was now wearing his uniform jacket, his medals worn proudly. I placed my hand over his medals and smiled.

"I'm so proud of you Private First Class Donald Novitski. My Donny."

"I'm proud of you too Julia. You will forever be his gold star wife. And you are my whole world."

"And you're my hero." I smiled and took his hand. We left and found our way to the cemetery. We checked ourselves in, being allowed in for free as my first husband and Donny's best friend was lying in there.