The ceremony honoring the nation's and the region's first responders and veterans has just completed in Smith Plaza under clearing skies.
If you've been following the Tweets of Mercury Reporter Brandie Kessler (@I_M_BrandieK) and Photographer John Stricker (@MercPhotog), then you know this already.
Pottstown Borough Manager Jason Bobst acknowledged some of our local responders, including Police Dispatcher Michelle Labant, who was injured in July by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan while serving with the Army National Guard.
She is recovering in Bethesda,Md. "She's here to protect our community and to protect our country and we hope she gets well soon and comes back to us."
"We've got a lot of great responders in our community," Bobst said. "They are the ones who, when the tones go off, they're leaving not knowing if they're coming back. And I think that's the greatest respect you can pay someone. They're there for us."
Brandie and John are back now in The Mercury's Community Media Lab (stop on in and visit us, 24 N. Hanover St., corner of King and Hanover).
Brandie said Bobst made another significant remark. He said Pottstown needs to come together.
"We are a community, not by wards, not by neighborhoods. We are Pottstown," Bobst said.
Before the skies cleared, while a few raindrops stubbornly fell on the crowd, state Sen. John Rafferty R-44th Dist. quoted an old Irish saying. In reference to those who fell that day, Rafferty said "on a day or a memorial ... raindrops are the tears of angels in heaven welcoming the new souls."
Pottstown Schools Superintendent Reed Lindley urged the community to learn from its history, and to understand that learning is the key to moving forward.
"Let us learn together, our future students and current students are counting on you and me," Lindley said.
Church bells and ringing now in downtown Pottstown, come down and see what they are calling you too.
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