Honoring a WWII Hero

We casted WWII dog tags in 18K gold and made five copies to give one to each of our clients daughters and one for herself to wear and remember him by. The original tags were returned to her for safe keeping, and she rocks some beautiful gold necklaces that have a fantastic story and style, and most importantly honor her father. "He was a Sargent stationed in Europe drafted at the age of 18. He would never talk about his war time when we were young although we always asked a ton of questions. He would answer with 'That was another life and I'm lucky to be  in this one with you. Some of my buddies weren't quite as lucky so I just never take a day for granted'. That's all we would ever get from him, but it was a true statement.

He had a trunk out in a closet in the back of the house we grew up in. We knew it was there and we knew it was full of WW2 memorabilia but it stayed locked and it was the one thing we didn't talk about. After both of my parents passed away my brother and I opened the trunk and we understood. What we found was many letters from friends, family and journals that just seem completely unreal. It was common for soldiers to take belongings from the enemies when they took their life. We have many German military items in that trunk collected during that war. It's all very unsettling but it's real and it was a huge part of his history so I have kept it.  It was when we opened the trunk that I found his dog tags. I can hardly look in that trunk without tears for that 18 year old boy and for how fast he had to grow up and for all the lives that were lost. He is my hero."