Hey everybody, as you all know today is Memorial day. I know I'm supposed to be taking a break. But I needed to have this short tribute chapter. As you all know, I lost a friend while I was serving. And I wrote a tribute chapter to him before. But I wanted to write this for him as well. For those who are still active duty, and for those who are planning on joining. I hope you will never have to deal with the loss of a brother in arms.

Now, I'm not going to be one of those vets who says hits you with guilt over having a day off on memorial day. Because I personally believe we should live a life the men who died would have loved to live. I have a moment of silence for the fallen, but I'll try and do something that day that will remind me that there is something in life worth living for.

"What are we doing here dad?" Nala asked as she had a small thing of flowers as Jem was carrying a six pack.

"Just visiting a friend sweetie." Jem said as he sat down by D's grave.

"Army buddy?" Nala asked as she took a seat by him as he cracked open a beer and put one by the grave.

"Yeah, funniest guy you will ever meet." Jem said as he took a sip of his own.

"What was he like?"

"Well, he was one of the funniest guys you would ever meet, give this guy one thing, and he could go on a whole spiel for an hour, one of my favorite memories if of him and the oldest guy in my platoon going back and forth with insults." Jem remembered that time.

It was like watching Robin Williams arguing with another Robin williams.

"What happened?" Nala asked as her father never told her about this.

"Well, we had just gotten done with a field exercise. I went back to my barracks room to shower and sleep for the rest of the weekend. He said he was going to go out to a house party outside base." Jem said as he remembered how he was in the mood for a lazy weekend before the chiefs and hte 49ers.

"I remember I fell asleep, and the next thing I know I woke up to my buddy calling me at 3 in the morning, I was pissed because I thought someone had gotten a DUI and we were all getting called into work." Jem's tone became more somber as he remembered what happened next.

"Unfortunately, my buddy calls and says 'D was shot and killed last night.' At first I thought it was a joke, I didn't believe it. Figured it was just a dream. But then some other friends came and knocked on my door.' And next thing I know I realized I wasn't dreaming, and it was all true." Jem said as he paused for a bit.

"We all got told his wife was at the hospital because she was about to go into labor, so we all went to go see her. She was fine, baby was fine...but..." Jem swallowed a bit as he remembered the next part.

"We didn't know her, but she knew us all by name, D had told her about every single one of us, about all of our times together, about all the stories he had, she knew each and every one of us...I didn't know D liked us all that much, we just figured it was another day at the office for us, but for him, he really talked about us after work like we were family." Jem remembered how much it hurt to find that out.

"She was trying so hard to be strong, but when she cried. I broke down too. I couldn't believe what was going on. I wanted so much to believe this wasn't happening, I wanted so much to believe it was going to be a dream, and the next day I would wake up and he would still be alive, and I would be able to talk to him more, get to know him more..." Jem swalled another lump in his throat as he continued the story.

"But it was all real, he was gone, and I knew I would never have a chance to get to know him the same way he saw us."

Nala hugged her father a little more as he was shaking a little at telling the story.

"I'm not perfect Nala, the gods know I'm far from it, but that day has encouraged me to be a better person, I never want to feel like I didn't know someone well enough when they were alive, I never want to go through the feeling of someone caring so much about me, but me knowing so little about them." Jem said as D was only in his life for a short amount of time, but the change he brought on was crazy.

"I really wish he was still here. Nothing could have prepared me for the day we lost a soldier, not to some insurgent overseas, but to some wannabe gangbanger."

Jem finished his beer. He reached into his pocket for change.

He knew the tradition of leaving a coin on the grave and the symbolism behind it.

He left a dime on the grave.

"Whats that?"

"Its tradition Nala, a penny means you visited, a nickel means you went to basic together, a dime means you served together, and a quarter means you were there when they died." He said as he hugged Nala close to him.

"Nala, if theres one thing I want you to learn its this." Jem said as he kneeled so he was eye level with her.

"Even though death is sad, and its something we don't want to face, we have to remember our friends, those who are gone, and those who are with us. If theres one thing I've learned, its that we can't bring back the ones we lost, but we can appreciate the ones we have now. Because everyday you never know when it could all change." He said as he brought her in for a hug.

"I'm not saying this to scare you." Jem said as he could tell Nala didn't want to think of him dying.

"But you have to cherish the moments you have now, and try not to miss out an opportunity to reach out to a friend, you never know how meaningful it can turn out to be." Jem packed up the stuff they came with.

Life and death go hand in hand.

But everyday you have to remember that while you may have lost people. You have to live the life they never had the chance to live. Because the last thing they want is for you to never live your life to the fullest because of being overtaken by depression.

You have to live the best life you can for those who can't.