05/25/2026
What Memorial Day Means To Me
Have a safe Memorial Day everybody from Paul and Patti at Katch Kreations.
This is Paul and on this day, I feel the need to share a very personal story that I have not shared publicly in almost 40 years, not even to most of my family and only recently to a select few.
In 1986 I was a cocky young project engineer for RobertShaw Controls. I ran an engineering group that my boss called the 'technical prima donnas'. In the late 1980's I was asked if I was willing to travel to China, for a humanitarian mission. They needed me to design and build assembly and test equipment that that made safety valves that stop gas flow if the pilot flame blew out on their gas devices. The Chinese were experiencing explosions from buildings filling up with LP gas when this happened. After my wonderful coworkers and I completed the assembly equipment and completed quite a bit of paperwork to get clearance, I set out on the 1st of my many trips to Nanjing China. What I thought, as a young kid, was going to be an adventure became VERY real when our plane landed at a military air force base (there were no commercial airports). Before landing I was told that I could be executed if I took pictures at the air force base. I won't delve into all the horrors I witnessed there showing just how little a human life can mean in certain places. What I will share is the final event that changed my life forever and made me realize just how lucky we are to live in the USA. It was during my final trip to China that my world was rocked and my life was changed forever. Unlike the earlier trips, where I was well received, this trip was much more serious and stressful. They had a very large shipment of gas valves that had been water damaged. I was asked to inspect each of them, one at at time, to sort out the damaged valves and certify the remainder were safe. We were, quite often, not in agreement as to which ones were safe which increased tensions. On the last day of my last trip, it happened. While being driven to the factory for the last time creeping through the streets to avoid the huge mass of bicyclists in front of us... I saw him... The stereotypical old man often depicted in cartoons with his goatee, wide brimmed hat, bicycle and a few meager belongings in his bicycle basket, wearing his sandals. Unfortunately, my vision also included the following, his bike, laying on its side, mangled in the back... his basket of meager possessions scattered around him and the old man laying on the pavement, his head in a pool of blood, still wearing his blood soaked hat. That was not the worst of it. The worst part was the masses of people walking in the dirt alongside that pavement, 8 - 10 deep, like a trail of ants. Not one of them even gave him a second glance. His fate, the loss of his life meant nothing to them. To the masses, that was the norm! My life changed at that moment as my insides felt like they were being torn out and my understanding of human life scrambled, for lack of a better word. I had to finish out the day with that in my head and had to pretend I was not phased by that (for my own safety). That was the hardest work day of my life. The guilt I carry for not speaking out at that time, haunts me to this day. Some 10 hours later I was returning to the hotel to prepare for my flight home, exhausted and just wanting to get the HELL out of there, when we came upon that same spot. Everything of value had been removed from the scene. His bicycle was gone, undoubtedly taken for spare parts, all the meager possessions from his basket - gone, his sandals were gone . . . even his blood soaked hat - gone. The only thing left, some 10 hours later, that had no value was HIM, lying in the road, with stones placed around his body. The proverbial ants from this morning continued their march and STILL, no one even glanced in his direction. Having reached my breaking point, I yelled at the driver to stop. I jumped out of the car, ran over to that man's body and took a picture, to the horror of everyone in that car (and probably most of
you - until you know why). You see, when I saw him lying there some 10 hours later, with the masses still ignoring him, I realized, to my horror, that my morning realization was correct. This man's life had no meaning to the masses or anyone else I could see. So I jumped out of the car and took the picture of him, telling my new friend, that I WOULD REMEMBER HIM! Because he reminded me of Pat Morita in the Karate Kid, I call him Mr. Miyagi (even though the character was not Chinese). I wish I could share the jumbled emotions I felt that night, waiting in my hotel room (with the 3 inch cockroaches) for the flight to get me out of there and take me home! By the time I found my seat in the business class section on the plane, I was completely exhausted and passed out for most of the 15 hour flight. I woke up a couple of hours before landing, and put on one of the same old movies I'd seen before on these flights. Sometime later, I looked out the window and saw the eastern coastline of the United States of America. The wave of emotion was overwhelming to me as I realized just how lucky I was to be a citizen OF the United States of America! I broke down crying after, unsuccessfully, trying to stuff my emotions! In the intimate environment of the business class section, everyone saw my reaction and the flight attendant came to check on me. By the time I explained why I was crying, almost the entire section was in tears! The people in that cabin helped me through those last couple of hours and I thank them for that! It was during those last few hours that I realized how much I love, appreciate and respect our veterans and active military service members and especially those who gave their lives so I could live mine the way I can. This is the reason for my struggling attempt to raise money for the USS Arizona Memorial project. When it is done, I will have a place to go to thank those who served and gave their lives to make my lifestyle possible... and to talk to Mr. Miyagi and let him know what he meant to me. I hope it will give our Veterans the same kind of peace and a quiet area to reflect. We hope to announce an event to help this cause after the heat.
THIS IS WHAT MEMORIAL DAY MEANS TO ME! It is about those men and women who gave their lives to make our lives, our freedoms and our opportunities possible and are too often taken taken for granted nowadays . As someone has already posted, there is a reason for your 3 day weekend so take a few minutes to reflect and thank those who made your weekend at the lake possible.
Mr. Miyagi is why there is a Katch Kreations, and why we have come out of a ten year retirement to start giving back to our beautiful city.
To the families of the fallen, thank you for what you have endured. Our thoughts and prayers are with you as well.
On a final note, we want to thank Christine Watson Buntemeyer who I cold called back in October, because of the incredible work she does with the Clothes Closet. We felt if anyone could help guide Katch Kreations in the direction we wanted to take it, it would be Christine. She not only took our call, but she believed in us! We have since worked together on several things and are honored to call her a friend. We have some exciting things planned for the future with her to benefit the Clothes Closet, but more importantly, right now we want to extend our thoughts and prayers to her in Minnesota while she tends to her ailing brother.
If you stuck around to read my entire story... Thank you!
Patti and I appreciate you!
