Over the years many practices that were commonplace have fallen to the wayside. Men rarely open doors for women and young people show no respect to their elders but even though that is the current state of our world, there are still men out there that are honorable, even if you don’t see them every day. An unknown soldier stood out in the pouring rain to show respect for a funeral procession that rolled by.
According to SoShareThis:
One such custom that has largely fallen out of use is the respect shown when a funeral procession goes by. I would venture a guess that most people nowadays don’t even know what the proper procedure is when they see a procession going by.
That’s why when we see people going above and beyond to show respect, it touches our hearts deeply; and that’s exactly what happened when Erin Hester was driving through town recently.
It was pouring rain as Erin drove, which is why she was surprised to see a man standing on the side of the road next to his car. As she got closer, she realized the man was a soldier in uniform and he was standing at attention.
Erin looked around to figure out why the soldier was doing this, and that’s when she saw a funeral procession slowly driving by, their headlights all on.
As soon as Erin saw the procession, she too pulled over to the side of the road to respectfully let it pass. When she got home later, she shared her story on Facebook.
“I always get frustrated when I see cars that don’t pull to the side and stop for a procession,” she wrote, “but this gentlemen went above and beyond.”
Erin said she is “pretty confident” that there are no military rules requiring a soldier to do this – and we weren’t able to find any either – this man was just showing honor and respect because it was the right thing to do.
“This made my heart happy to see the amount of respect that this gentleman showed a family that he doesn’t even know,” she said.
Many other people were touched by Erin’s photo and story.
Brandi Guillet commented, “I’m so glad you captured this. This young man was raised [with] love and respect in his heart.”
Others shared stories of similar experiences and wrote about how much those moments had touched them.
“When my dad passed away we were following the casket through a not wonderful side of town.. we passed a bus stop and a man who was waiting for the bus stood up and took off his hat,” Victoria Archibeque recalled. “I cried and it took everything I had to not go hug him. It’s amazing when someone does something for nothing in return.”
The soldier in the photo will remain a mystery for the time being, but he knows that it’s not about recognition but it’s about respect. He doesn’t need a pat on the back to know what he did was right and for that, we salute you. They say chivalry is dead but this soldier proved otherwise. Share this so others can see what a true man of honor looks like.
Source: SoShareThis
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