More than a year after Sgt. Merlin German nearly died in a roadside bombing in Iraq, his hands burned into nubs and his body in a wheelchair, he resolved to walk into his San Antonio church on his own two feet.
His mother, Lourdes German, who had been "his hands and feet" since that day in February 2005, worried but knew it would be so. "Everything he did, he did himself," Lourdes German, 54, said. "That parish was just overjoyed. The pastor even stopped preaching to welcome Merlin."
Her vigil over her son ended April 11, when German, 22, died unexpectedly in San Antonio after a surgery to graft skin onto his lip. "Even with pain in my heart, I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other," she said.
His mother, Lourdes German, who had been "his hands and feet" since that day in February 2005, worried but knew it would be so. "Everything he did, he did himself," Lourdes German, 54, said. "That parish was just overjoyed. The pastor even stopped preaching to welcome Merlin."
Her vigil over her son ended April 11, when German, 22, died unexpectedly in San Antonio after a surgery to graft skin onto his lip. "Even with pain in my heart, I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other," she said.
Lord forgive me for those times I feel sorry for myself. Help me to remember stories such as these that are repeated thousands of times around the world everyday. Please help me to be thankful for all that you have given me and to appreciate every single second of my time on earth as if each was my last - to appreciate every breath as if each was my last - to appreciate every loved one as if I might never see them again. Thank you for all the blessings you have bestowed upon me. Though you have placed burdens and hurdles in my life that have been difficult to overcome there are always so many others in much worse pain than myself.
Please watch over them dear Lord and give them comfort and strength and forgive me for butting in line with my own supposed problems when there are so many others ahead of me with much more pressing needs.
