Memorial Day is a time to honor the men and women who gave everything, including their lives, for our country’s freedom. Today, 13 ON YOUR SIDE is recognizing some of the ways families in West Michigan pay tribute to our fallen service members.
Polly Boughton of Caledonia says the veteran she honors every Memorial Day was a close family friend who gave the ultimate sacrifice while fighting in the Vietnam War. For Boughton’s family, though, this war hero deserves to be honored for so many other reasons.
“He was family to us. In a lot of ways, he really saved my life,” said Boughton.
It started with an encounter at the rodeo. That’s how she says a friendship blossomed between her parents and Edward “Eddie” Worrell.
When Boughton was born prematurely in 1967, she says, “One of the few things they could do was to give blood to help maintain weight and body heat and there weren’t blood banks. So, you had to find people who were matched and he was one of the matches.”
The trio of friends would work together at the rodeo for several years while living in Alabama, before Worrell would be called to duty. He was drafted in September 1968 during the Vietnam War.
“A lot of them ended up going and a lot of them didn’t come back,” said Boughton, who added that Worrell would later join that list, dying just months after being drafted.
Now, Boughton says, “Memorial Day is to remember those who fell. Those who never came back. All gave some, some gave all.”
This means an ongoing responsibility for Boughton.
She says, “Their stories are gone. Nobody’s here to repeat them. So, those of us that remember have to repeat those stories to remind people what our freedom means, why we have it and how we attained it.”
Boughton is determined to continue telling Worrell’s story and cherishes some of his most prized possessions. Laughing, Boughton put on the very cowboy hat that Worrell is wearing in one of the only pictures she has of him. He left that hat and his boots with her family right before he left for the war. Boughton had no idea about the items, until about seven years ago when her parents passed down the items to her.
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