I Am Samuel Steward’s Flag, And I’m Coming Home to Indiana

I am Samuel Steward’s memorial flag. I stand for his sacrifice and service to our country. I was given to this soldier’s family July 21, 2004, but Katie Marks found me somewhere else, in a flea market called the Peddler’s Mall in Bardstown, Kentucky.

“I actually found it on a plastic utility shelf in a booth in the back,” said Marks. “It was on a scond shelf, tucked away. But, it did catch my eye and I went back for a it a couple of days later.”

I was in my black case, folded into a triangle.

Katie looked for Samuel’s family.

“I will say Facebook has been an excellent way for us to track people down,” she said.  She found them in Petersburg, Indiana, where Samuel lived.

“Could you imagine not even outliving your own parents and how that must’ve been for his family to lose him at such a young age?” Sam was 40. He died after a car wreck.

And she found out about my journey, still folded, part of Sam’s legacy, part of the family history, a symbol of our country all the while.

“So, it was housed in a storage unit, along with a lot of other personal possessions like birth certificates and family photos, things of that nature,” said Katie. 

And when the medical bills got to be too much for Sam’s family, the storage unit had to go, and so did I, all the way to Bardstown, three hours away, to be put up for sale for $45. And Katie Marks bought me because she respects me.

“Word of the day: Respect. And, the way that flag was disrespected by being sold at a peddler’s mall is crazy.”

For her grandfather’s service and Samuel Steward’s memory, I’ll soon be headed back to rest where I belong, with San’s family, and honoring a grateful nation.

PHOTO: Katie Marx