Dying Iraq Veteran Just Wants to Know Someone Cares

UPDATE from USA Today July 19

"The 47-year-old is under hospice care in New Braunfels, Texas. His dying wish is to receive text messages and phone calls from anybody willing to talk to him. So far, his wish has been granted thousands and thousands and thousands of times over."

How many times have you heard someone died and thought how nice they were to you? Remembered some times you shared? Thought about how they mattered to you? How many times have you been to a funeral and regretted not letting them know any of it?

In this country we talk a lot about how much our veterans matter to us but over and over again, they discover they do not feel as if they do matter. 

We build homes for some disabled veterans and feel good about it, but others lose their homes and we do nothing for them.

We run around the country screaming about "raising awareness" on veterans killing themselves, write checks, do pushups, take walks, whatever makes us feel as if we did something. Hey, as long as it doesn't take too much time out of our lives, that's all that matters. And then they kill themselves and we wonder why.

We talk about a lot of things, but as they say "talk is cheap" when we don't have to invest anything to back it up. Well here's your chance. Let this dying Iraq veteran know he matters!

ARMY VETERAN'S DYING WISH: CALL OR TEXT ME
WSB RADIO 95.5
By: Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
July 14, 2017

A dying Army veteran from Texas has a final wish: He wants to hear from you.

Lee Hernandez, who is in hospice care at his home in New Braunfels, has undergone three brain surgeries and has suffered several strokes, the Arizona Republic reported.

His wife, Ernestine Hernandez, said she found a therapeutic way to brighten her husband’s day: Phone calls and text messages from others. Lee Hernandez asked his wife to hold his phone one day “in case someone calls,” the Republic reported. Two hours later, he was despondent.

“I guess no one wants to talk to me,” said the 47-year-old veteran, who served 18½ years in the Army including a tour in Iraq.

“It broke my heart,” Ernestine Hernandez told the Republic. “(Lee’s) speech is not very well, so many people didn’t take much interest or want to talk with him.”

That is, until she contacted Caregivers of Wounded Warriors.
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