� � That may seem a contradiction in terms, but in the truest sense of the word it is a fact. Even though we lived together in the same home for a large part of our lives, we never really knew one another. I will even venture to say that we learned more about each other through the observations of people we knew than from any direct communication. Still, it never once stopped either of us from basking in the glories of the other's achievements and even unabashedly puffing out our chests with pride when the other of us wasn't looking.

� � Though we were strangers we shared a bond. This bond is something that can not be properly defined, yet none the less it was something quite tangible and transcended the mere bond between a father and son. It is something that no one else would ever have despite how much they wanted it or wished for it. Perhaps my father was aware of this when he chose to give me his name�

� I shall not recount my father's almost myriad achievements here and now. Nor will I attempt to condense his rich life in to a few pages, for that would injustice. Each of us gathered here are acutely aware of the facts of his life. As well, each of you is now able to know the impact he had upon you for now that he is no longer here we all have the recourse to stop and fully witness it. Suffice it to say it is obvious, by many standards, he was in a class all his own.

� � Instead if you will, allow me to share just a few memories with you in honor of the bond we shared:
� � My childhood recollections of my father are probably not too different from the average man's, playing football in the yard as a boy and the disastrous first attempts at teaching a boy to drive are fairly common. Intertwined among those common memories, however, are the years of knowing my father as a photograph on the coffee table or as a flickering image on the six o' clock news during the Vietnam War. My mother and I sat a nightly vigil hoping to catch another glimpse of him and all the while quietly praying it would not be of his broken body on some street neither of us would ever know the true location of.

My father in his office, somewhere in Vietnam. (date unknown)

� � Then too there were the rare instances where he had the chance to call us, his disembodied voice sometimes distorted by the thousands of miles of static in the phone lines. I remember that clearly for he always called late at night and often I was cranky and cried because I wanted to sleep. He would cry because he wanted to be home, even if it meant dealing with a cranky six year-old.

� � I can remember his return from his second tour of duty to that horrible place, how bright the sun was that day and what a stunning figure he cut coming down the exit ramp from the plane. We both cried then as well, but for a totally different reason. Those were tears of joy.

� � While there are many more, his promotion to 2nd. Lieutenant, the Evening Parades at Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. and the times he appeared in magazines, but there is one memory that, above all others, will never gain the soft-focus most eventually develop with the passing of years. On that day our bond was irrevocably made stronger.

� � It was August 15, 1990. On that day the bond between us, two strangers, father and son, two strong-willed individuals, became a bond between two fathers. With the birth of my daughter, Caitlin, he and I met together in a shared experience for the first and only time ever. Yes, we cried. Yes, we laughed. Yes, we both puffed out our chests with pride, but more importantly, from that day forward we shared the rest of our lives basking in the light of what our bond helped bring us both through - as it shined in the lights of my daughter's eyes.

� � We stretched it to it's limits, we clung to it in times of grief, we tried hard to ignore it at times, but the bond still remained. Captain Sidney B. Edwards and Sidney R. Edwards are forever bound together. Now it's my turn to watch bond between my daughter and I grow and stand the test of time. Two more strong-willed individuals bound together�

� � In conclusion let me say this. While each of you here today had a bond with my father, it was never as strong and never shined brighter than the day two strangers let their true selves be glimpsed to each other as they fought to quiet my cranky child's tears. We paused, we smiled and we shared the one ray of light in our bittersweet time together.