Memorial Day program gets personal

April Brandon wanted to make this one personal.

She is routinely asked to speak at White Hall’s Memorial Day program, as she did at Monday’s ceremony. But she took it a step further.

“Now that I’ve done what I was asked to do, I’ll do what I want to do,” she said. “This is special. It’s been 20 years.”

What she was asked to do was to give a history of the Gold Star – a distinction that began during World War I.

Then she told of how, on that April day in 2004, she came to realize that her husband, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Stacey C. Brandon, had been killed in action while serving in Iraq. He was 35. At age 30, April was a widow, left to raise a young son and daughter alone.

“It’s been 20 years since that life-changing day,” she said. “The day I became a Gold Star wife. I’ve recounted that day every day. It never goes away.”