Monumental Spirit

by Deb Wollesen

(Omaha, Nebr.)

I have a story about Gettysburg from May of 2005. My husband and I went to the visitors center and bought a cd tour and just got into our car and drove around the historic battlefield. We were nearing the end when we came upon one of the huge monuments (can’t remember which one). We both at the same time spotted a young, maybe 20ish year old looking man kneeling, sort of wrapping his arms around the bottom of the monument. He was looking at it very lovingly, almost caressing it! At that moment, his eyes met ours, and very slowly, got up off his knees and started walking up a hill that didn’t even have a path for people to walk on. We watched him till he was out of sight, and went back to the store, and told the gentleman behind the counter, “That was a nice renactment out on the battlefield”. To which he said, “We don’t have anyone out there doing renactments this time of year”! He said they get that all the time. He looked just like a normal person to us. We are going again August 2011, can’t wait!