The other night I volunteered with the Fostering Hope Foundation at the monthly cooking events. I noticed that the young woman who organizes the event had a new tattoo of a WWII airplane. She shared the story of the unusual work of art. Her grandfather was in the Air Force and flew a fighter plane in WWII. The plane eventually ended up in a scrapyard in New Guinea. Decades later, a group of people rescued the plane and brought it to the city to be restored and displayed in a museum. The group met with the grandfather and it was then that they realized they were restoring the actual airplane that this man flew. The desire of the 101 year old was to see the plane fly one last time. His wish came true. When the plane was ready, it took off for a flight with the old pilot in a chaser plane. While he wasn’t able to actually fly the plane, he did get to see it airborne. He passed away only 1 month later. You can read the full beautiful story here. The young woman’s tattoo had smoke stream or clouds above the airplane in the shape of 3 wispy letter “c”s. She explained that was the secret to the long and happy marriage of her grandparents. They lived by “caring, committment, communication”. I met the young woman’s mother last night at an event and she was just lovely. It was clear that the grandfather had made a meaningful, loving, life long impact on the family and I am sure on many others.

I Found God today in a beautiful family with a wonderful and loving story of the grandfather.