Karen Spears Zacharias’s After the Flag Has Been Folded is an engaging, folksy, sometimes harrowing memoir. Spears’s father was a Vietnam War casualty, and in this book, she explores all that means—for a family to lose a loved one to war. The experience took its toll on her sister, brother, mother, and her. Each of them suffered, trying to make sense of it all, trying to get their own lives on track. Growing up in near poverty, this family, originally from Tennessee and transplanted to Georgia, was led by a mother, although not perfect, was determined to provide for her family. We see a woman here who goes from abject grief, to way too much partying, to a GED, an LVN certification, an RN certification, and ultimately a long, successful nursing career. Meanwhile, her daughter Karen is rebellious, son Frank becomes an out-of-control drug addict and pusher, and daughter Linda, who fares the best in the family, seems to be aloof (perhaps her way to deal with the loss.) But Spears’s story is one of triumph: struggles be damned, these three siblings grow up with values, weather their personal storms, and achieve in life. Spears herself made it her personal quest to find out as much as she could about her father’s death, and that quest led her to a global understanding of what war does to families. And it led her to dedicate her life and career to helping Vietnam veterans. But standing out in her story is her mother. The original title of this book was Hero Mama, because as Spears says, she had two heroes in her life, her daddy and her mama.
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