As a matter of brief backstory, my grandfather served in World War II for the United States Army in the 1st Infantry. Sadly he is no longer with us, but I am thankful for the respect and honor he showed his fellow service members he instilled those very same values in me. He reminded me that people who have served our country are different and their service is a refelection that they vowed to pay the ultimate price for our freedom.
During set-up on Friday, security informed me that someone wanted to speak to me. This is not usual since during setup its only dealers and security. To my surprise it was a gentleman by the name of Tom who greeted me with the very smile you see here in this picture. He was accompanied by his son in law who introduced his father in law to me as "A 96 year old Marine".
Tom was excited to come into the show and "look around". I told him we were still setting up and there wasn't a lot to see just yet but of course he was welcomed to come in and talk to the dealers. I informed him that the show would be in full swing tomorrow and gave him two tickets numbers 1 & 2 (veterans are given door tickets for free to win potential prizes) He returned the next day and spent the whole day with us. In some way it almost felt as if my grandfather was there. As we were wrapping up for the day we called the last door prize and low and behold it went to Tom who had ticket #2, Tom was ecstatic and said we made his weekend, but in reality he made ours.
