Thanks for Operation Home Cooking

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — With another Thanksgiving just passed, I am reminded of something that happened two years ago.

I decided to have my four children participate in a “soup kitchen” opportunity before our traditional Thanksgiving routine of going to Grandma's house. We lived five minutes from Grandma's house, and we were blessed to have a wonderful meal each year, right down to the Norman Rockwell touches. I thank God for all we had, but I wanted my children to appreciate what they had, too.

When we went to the soup kitchen, my one son, then 16, was not as eager as his siblings. I think it was out of his comfort zone, interfering with his ideal Thanksgiving routine. Being 16 didn't help; maybe his mindset was this was “uncool.” I don't think he understood there are people who spend the holiday alone or can't be close to their families for different reasons. My family all lives close; we follow the same holiday routines with much family involved, and there is much love and laughter around them all the time. Helping at the soup kitchen was a great way to open their eyes to a world they didn't really know existed.

I am telling San Antonio this story for a reason. Last week, a beautiful woman went to pick up my son, now 18, and three other airmen trainees at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland as they were granted the opportunity to eat a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal off base with a family. The Operation Home Cooking program is an awesome gesture not only to the service members away from home during the holiday, but also to the families of loved ones who can breathe easier knowing their airman is loved on for the entire day.

Mary Luevano McCraney and her family invited our son and three other airmen into her home on Thanksgiving. She allowed my son to call home several times throughout the day, she sent us photos, and she provided us, the loved ones back home, with a piece of mind that our son was treated like family away from his own family. It brought a huge smile to my face in a bittersweet situation. I am still emotional just thinking that someone loved my son enough to open her home on Thanksgiving.

I reminded my son in a letter that sometimes in life we do things for others, not expecting anything in return, and you will be blessed in ways you cannot imagine. On Thanksgiving, I think that my son had his first reality check with what I was trying to get across to him during our soup kitchen experience. He was being blessed. Helping, serving and loving people — that is what life is all about. I think my young airman has learned what it is to be grateful during his first holiday away from home.

San Antonio families who participated in Operation Home Cooking and Mary Luevano McCraney, you rock! I love Texans, and I look forward to the day that I can pay it forward.

Leigh Snyder lives in Shanksville, Pa. The mother of four is the executive assistant at a truck body manufacturing facility. Her husband is a veteran.