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Adopting a grave is not anything that everyone does
But it is different in the case of 16 years old Sebastiaan Vonk
He has adopted the graves of three American World War 2 Soldiers
I had subscribed for adopting a grave
and then they assigned me Lawrence F. Shea's grave
He was a Corporal in the 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division
He died in Kassel, Germany on April 2, 1945
How often do you visit these graves?
Approximately 5-6 times a year
What do you do when you are here?
Firstly, we visit the grave, laying the flowers that I brought with me
And then we walk around on the cemetery
between the other graves. And to check how the cemetery looks like that day
It always feels like you visit a friend of yours
It sounds strange...
but the name becomes familiar, because you visit the grave so often
And you know him actually very well, because you have done research to him
So it feels a bit like visiting a friend
Most of them have been buried here now for 64-65 years
And I think that by visiting and adopting these graves
that you still give these man attention
so that they and what they have done not will be forgotten.
I came back from the United States last week
I would go there on holiday. Like I thus did.
But another soldier's family had arranged two things for me
I have visited the governor of the State of Kentucky
I received there the highest award of the State Kentucky, the Kentucky Colonel
Two days later I went to Fort Knox
An U.S. Army base
I have been honored there by
units that are stationated there right now
but also by veterans of the 80th Division
his unit.