Grieving For Her Brother, Woman Finds Unexpected Comfort On Memorial Day
FAIR OAKS (CBS13) - This Memorial Day gave one woman a sense of closure she's waited more than 40 years for.
That closure came as a surprise when she ran into someone she never expected to see at Mount Vernon Memorial Park in Fair Oaks.
Her family's grief on this Memorial Day is a reminder that our freedom doesn't really come free.
She reaches for some sort of comfort but only feels heartache.
"It's very hard. Look at these people. The reason we're here is because of this," she said.
Its been more than 40 years since Rhonda Hildebrand lost her big brother, but the tears still fall like they did when she was 10.
"He died of gangrene and came home in a box," she said Monday, sobbing.
At just 22 years old., Sgt. John Guenther died after getting hit with shrapnel from a mortar round. He had been fighting in Vietnam for a year and a half.
"He didn't have to go, but he volunteered to go," she said.
"He's one of the guys you never forget," said Rhonda's husband, Ken Hildebrand. "Won two Purple Hearts. I have a plaque that has all his medals in it."
And for so many years they had only Rhonda's memories to hold onto, but on this Memorial Day among a sea of red white and blue while hundreds mourned and saluted, they also met someone who helped them heal.
"Today was a very special day," Rhonda said. "One of the guys we met here knew my brother."
They've seen flowers and trinkets left behind at her brother's tombstone but never knew where they came from. Now they do.
After decades of separately paying their respects to Johnny on this holiday, Rhonda finally met the mystery man, a veteran who served with her brother back in the 1960s.
"He told us wonderful stories about Johnny," she said.
They exchanged numbers and Rhonda gave him Johnny's name tag.
"I took it off and gave it to him so he could have a piece of my brother," she said.
She was grateful for a connection to her brother, ne she'll forever cherish.
"What's a better gift for Memorial Day to keep his memory alive?" she said.
And while she may have lost her brother, Rhonda says she gained many more through an army of support from other veterans.
