Companion to the wind

A year ago today my friend Ashley was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber. She'd been married to one of my best friends for just more than a year when it happened.

I remember the first time I met Ashley. She was a blond bombshell in a skirt that could have been both illegal and famous. And this was the girl who decided to get up early every morning for ROTC training. To go to some God forsaken desert because it was her duty.

I don't know what else to say except that, of all my friends, I still think she had the best spirit. In short, the last person who should have died, but the first one to sign up.

I guess that's what heroes do.




i see a flower there
doesn't know she's beautiful
wakes every morning thinking
all the other things are beautiful,
well she's free.
oh, companion to the wind