American Road Trip Part 2

After a good sleep we packed our things up and moved on. Today we were visiting a very special family. Bob and Annette Sandri were introduced to us via Maj Matt Grieser who was based in HQ ARRC, Rheindahlen. He basically made all of our links here with the US Army, possible and contacted Bob Sandri before we arrived in Philadelphia. I say that the Sandri family are special because they have had to face the toughest challenge ~ their son, Matthew Sandri, a Sgt in the US Army [a medic in the 82nd Airborne] was killed in action in Iraq, in 2004.

Bob, Annette and Lydia Sandri [with my mad lot!!!]

We can't begin to imagine what they have been through over the past 6 years and they were so welcoming to us insisting that we stay the night with them. During our time with them Bob would talk to us about the events leading up to their son's death, the medics who were with Matt when the explosion happened and how he had courageously protected his fellow comrade by diving onto him. His comrade survived all of this and even made a surprise call to the Sandri family. Bob told us that they weren't expecting the visit and that the poor soldier had spent the night in his car, outside of the Sandri's home as he had lost his nerve! I think he knocked on their door at lunchtime the following day!

Bob and Annette spoke very movingly and openly about their son and at the time of all of this, their youngest daughter Lydia, was only 8 years old. Lydia, wrote to the then US President, George Bush and the whole family were invited to Washington to meet Mr. Bush in the White House!!!!!! The photographs of their meeting were wonderful and they said that Mr and Mrs Bush were great. Good on Lydia!

In honour of their son, the 82nd Airborne Division, developed an interactive medical training centre for US Soldiers with state of the art facilities. The Sandri family have been heavily involved in this as they keep very close links with the 82nd Airborne Div and have attended ceremonies and demonstrations of the facilities. We saw some of the photographs of the centre. It is amazing and could be a benchmark for future training. They even have a dummy soldier who can be controlled from the control room to present with complicated symptoms which can be altered at any time whilst medics are dealing with a particular scenario.

Poppy and Jamie loved it in their house ~ a traditional 3 storey house with a beautiful veranda and swing. Poppy even fell asleep on Annette whilst on the swing!

There were loads of toys for Jamie to play with and we can't forget to mention, Jack the dog!! Even dogs are supersize over here! We are dog lovers and sadly on health advise had to re-home our beloved dog last year. We still find this very difficult as Barney was with us from 11 weeks old. Jamie adored him and still talks about Barney and when are we going to get another dog? So Jamie and Jack became friends but Jack's friendly advances towards Poppy were not so well received at times!! She enjoyed the chase of stroking him and pulling his hair and was content with him lying next to her!!

We had a lovely meal with Bob, Annette and Lydia [their other son, Blake was away at West Point on a pre-selection course] and then went for a walk around the town, stopping off for ice creams and visiting the various monuments dedicated to fallen heroes from wars past and present. Very sad to see their son's name here too.

Jamie ate 6 eggs at their house and the next morning he wanted eggs again!!!

Here is Jack...is he supposed to be on guard?!!

John went to visit Matt Sandri's grave with Annette before we left.

Poppy and Lydia

So that marked the end of our American Roadtrip!! Thank you for your hospitality!

We all had a wonderful few days away and hope to meet up with both families again in the near future.

No hospital appointments for the rest of the week but still on Accutane. Jamie is amazingly well and I am pleased to say has coped well with the side effcets of the Accutane.

We have a Charity event to attend at the weekend. Alex's Lemonade Stand are celebrating 10 years since the original stand was set up. The open day is on Saturday and I am sure there will be lots to write about!!!

Bye for now!!

The Inglis'

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