SPOKANE, Wash. — Kindness comes in all forms.
John Ferris and his daughter CeCe traveled from their California home to Spokane to clean the unattended gravesite of a World War II veteran.
But it all started with a letter from 80 years ago.
"I'd been kind of going through some of Dad's correspondence in the last year or so," John said. "It made me curious about who he was."
The letter was from Reverend Charles McAllister at St. John Cathedral. In it, he talked about the death of his son, Chuck McAllister.
Chuck was from Washington and a good student and athlete. He went to Princeton. He could have stayed stateside but chose to go to war. He was a celebrated leader who was killed while trying to save his men.
One of those grieved by the loss was John's dad, Joel Ferris of Spokane, who was corresponding with the reverend following Chuck's death.
"He really was such a grace-filled human in the way in which he responded to Chuck's passing and short life," John said about the letter.
Inspired by the voices of the past, John decided to find where Chuck McAllister was buried and decided an unattended grave wasn't good enough.
"When I found the letter I reached out to some local groups, and they didn't have the time or resources to come and tend to Chuck's tombstone," John said. "And I thought, shoot, we'll go do it."
John said he did it as a show of support and reverence for the men and women who have sacrificed, and he did it for his own dad.
"In a way, you know, he's symbolic of my father's experience," John said. "He made it home and Chuck didn't. And so it was such an impulse that I felt the need to take care of it."
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