The Shadowbox

As a sailor, Eric had three career goals: make chief, earn a shadow box, and have a 20-year retirement ceremony. But after 15 years and service in two wars, he was too sick to stay in uniform. The cancer had stolen his milestones.

Eric’s wife felt he deserved those things. Rank was out of Geodee’s hands, but she could do something about the other two. She planned for months, secretly worming details out of her husband about his idea of the perfect retirement ceremony. Friends and old shipmates chipped in and pulled strings — assembling mementos of his career into a shadow box and helping arrange his special day.

The ceremony took place on the deck of the battleship Wisconsin. Dressed in his whites, Eric looked like the sailor on the Cracker Jack box. He’d dug out his smallest uniform. The cancer had taken so much of his weight.

As her husband stood tall, Geodee was thankful she’d been able to pull it off — that for this day, for this moment, Eric could stop thinking about the fact that he was dying.

At the end of the ceremony, she was presented with an American flag. She knew it wouldn’t be the last one she’d receive on Eric’s behalf.