Freedom Isn’t Free…. We see those words a lot, usually on bumper stickers. As proud Americans we display flags and bumper stickers because we all know someone who has fought for this great nation of ours. But for some families… my family… we know the price of that freedom.

If you know me personally, you know about my cousin Sgt. Eddie Ryan who was critically injured on a rooftop in Iraq.  In my family he is now and will always be “Little Eddie”.

I have a small, close knit, Christian Family. Eddie grew up in Ellenville, just down Rt 209 from Kingston. Eddie’s grandmother, my mother’s only sibling, died when she was 36 years old. Eddie’s father Chris was only two years old at the time. Chris and his brothers Randy and Eddie were very very close to my family. In fact they have always been more like brothers to me than first cousins. Every holiday, every family event, every milestone was celebrated at my parents house.

Little Eddie and my cousin Randy’s son Randall joined the Marines together. That was right about the time when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Every single Sunday Eddie would call my mother from where ever he was in the world so they could pray together. Eddie would tell my mother that they were both fighting battles and they both needed God to protect them. He came home on special family leave when my mother had gotten really bad. He came to the house to spend the day with her. I can’t put into words what that meant to my mother, to all of us. Eddie came home a second time, this time it was for Easter. He and his parents and sister came to my house for Easter dinner. My house became the family gathering spot once my mother couldn’t cook. I remember that day so clearly… like it was yesterday. It was a perfect Easter… full of love, laughter and lots of food. Before dinner we held hands and prayed. Chris said the blessing. I remember him asking God to protect all of our soldiers and to bring them home safely.

Eddie went back to Iraq the next morning and he was shot in the head four days later.

I can’t accurately describe that day….  When we got the call that Eddie was shot we gathered at my mother’s house. We didn’t know the extent of his injuries, but we knew the Marines came to get his parents to fly them to Germany. Therefore, it was very, very bad. We sat in silence for about 8 hours waiting for the next phone call. From that moment on, my entire family was never the same.

That was ten years ago… Eddie survived having lost the entire right side of his brain. My mother died a few months after he was shot, never having heard his voice again, never knowing if he would ever come home.

Eddie has made remarkable improvements. We are so incredibly blessed to have him in our lives. But we are the lucky ones. So many families get that same phone call with a different ending. So many families are never the same.

So today… election day…Please, please go exercise your right to vote.  Please remember all the lives that have been lost.. all lives that will never be same, so that you, me and our families can live in freedom.

Freedom isn’t free!