Chapter 26 — We Came Back to Bring Our Family Home

One evening near the end of that summer, as the sun was going down over the Ohio fields in long ribbons of amber and gold, I walked down by myself to a small park that overlooked the river at the edge of town.

There was something there I had been meaning to visit alone.

In the center of the park stood a newly dedicated memorial bench, and on it, freshly cast in bronze, was a plaque bearing Julian’s name and honoring what he had done.

The town had put it there, once the truth came out, to remember the young man who had tried to protect them and had not been protected in return.