The VA hospital for the state of Maine is named Togus.  Togus is apparently a Native American word for mineral water, for whatever that is worth, to us it means a special part of our annual tour.  This most recent visit was scheduled at such a time that all three of us could go.  But the best part of the timing was that we got to do the chapel service on Veterans Day weekend. 

I shared briefly that my dad was a World War II veteran, and a conversation I had with him after juggling in a Veterans Day parade in Rhode Island.  There had been a WWII vet who walked the parade route with a walker.  Although he arrived at the end site 20 minutes after everyone else, he completed the course to a  rousing ovation.  My dad had said, "it's cause of guys like that that we won that war."  After recounting that story, I thanked the vets that, because of men and women like them we could meet and have services that day, and our country could have free elections like the ones that had just ended.

besides an opportunity to express appreciation for their service, we really wanted to bless them with an excellent and meaningful show.  I trust we did. Afterwards, we talked with several of them and their family members in a nice time of fellowship.  We also ran into a member of the local Masons who has been a chapel volunteer at Togus every Sunday that we've been there since 1987.  He is, obviously, a regular, who humbly comes each week to move the gentlemen who are wheelchair bound to and fro the chapel.  Undoubtedly,This guys a hero, too,