Randell Jones
Daniel Boone Footsteps
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6-minute Stories

Everybody loves a good story
Listen to these 6-minute stories
from both new voices and experienced writers
from the Personal Story Publishing Project anthologies:
Bearing Up , Exploring , That Southern Thing , Luck & Opportunity,
Trouble , Curious Stuff , Twists and Turns , Sooner or Later , and Now or Never.
Copies of all 10 books in the series available here.
“6-minute Stories” episodes announced on Facebook @6minutestories

"Gold Star Mothers" by Thomas Gery

 – an award no one wants

Did I feel his mother’s sorrow or my own self-pity?

 

Thomas Gery, a common man with uncommon life experiences, lives in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He served in the US Army with duty in Vietnam. As a social worker he helped children, youth, and adults in a variety of practice venues and situations throughout a work life of 40 years. Married, with two adult children and two grandchildren, he is currently writing his life story to provide answers to questions his kids will never ask. 

Author’s Talk

Thomas Gery

I write so the dust leaves a residue.  A life requires purpose, the body movement, the brain work.  An ego demands expression; selfdom seeks an audience. 

I write to do it all. Authors seek something not always found. I am guaranteed readership. There are two who in the future will have questions I won’t be able to answer. I know; my parents are gone. Today I write answers for question yet asked. My children will learn. 

I am a commoner in an uncommon time. The changes pulsing through my generation resemble the boom of a broken sound barrier. Jet travel, free love, segregation, integration, AOL, AI, chips and bytes all happened. How did my experience fit in? I have a story. 

Memories accumulated in sketch books since my twenties provide source material. Letters from a war zone backfill gaps in memory. Papers from the past paint pictures of life. The present can call up the past. “Gold Star Mothers” is a blend of both; added are regret and understanding.  

Roles filled, actions described: male; white; privileged; son; brother; warrior; blue collar; husband; father; grandfather; social worker; retiree; volunteer; observer of life.   

I write to leave an imprint in ashes.—Thomas Gery

Randell Jones