By Julie Patrick

My grandfather Harmon L. Patrick was an Army medic in World War I.

Sometimes the ambulances couldn’t reach where the men were so they had to use mules, horses and wagons to get to them.

My grandfather always felt sorry for the horses and mules because if they got hurt they just had to shoot them. That’s where he got the love he had for animals when he got back. We always had horses, mules, and that’s how I have the two-seater horse-drawn buggy that’s still on our Quitman farm.

He came back from the war and started adopting horses. They always had livestock but he started getting horses.

Seeing men die, I guess he had to block that out because he was a medic, but something about the animals getting hurt and having to shoot them struck him deeply.

I’d like to remember Harmon L. Patrick on this 2019 Memorial Day.

PHOTO NOTE: This is “early era” Photoshopping as both men in the photo are Harmon L. Patrick