Iraq veteran stuck at O'Hare finds 'little miracle' of kindness

There's really nothing newsworthy in this story at all, confesses grandma Lorraine Miller of St. Charles. It's trivial, insignificant.

And yet…

Miller was moved to pass along her tale to a friend who passed it along to Daily Herald reporter Josh Stockinger. Even in the rush of writing daily news, Stockinger was inspired to let me in on the story. Now I feel compelled to share it with you.

"It probably isn't important to a lot of people," the 72-year-old Miller assures me, pausing as her voice cracks with emotion. "But it made my Christmas the most wonderful one of all."

Miller hadn't seen her grandson, Army Pfc. Adam Osland, since he left for Iraq on July 18.

"We did air assault missions, raids and stuff like that," Osland says of his Iraq duty.

He returned Nov. 16 to Fort Drum in New York, but his first trip home was Saturday. Osland was en route to his parents' home in Suwanee, Ga., for Christmas when his flight plans changed. Snowy weather and two canceled flights left him stuck at O'Hare. Osland hoped to arrange a spur-of-the-moment reunion with Grandma.

"I just wanted to go see her real quick," Osland says.

Miller called Keen Limousine Service of St. Charles.

"To make a long story short, I'm a combat veteran from Vietnam. My son (Brett) served in Afghanistan," says Ron Keen, owner of the limo service. He knows the value of a stranger's kindness.

"I can recall one Thanksgiving …" Keen says.

It was 1967. Keen was a 23-year-old soldier with the Army's 1st Infantry Division fighting the war in Vietnam. Injured while jumping out of a helicopter, Keen was stuck in a hospital in Japan when an Air Force family stationed there invited him to Thanksgiving dinner.

"It doesn't take a great deal to make somebody's life a little bit better," Keen notes.

Keen Limousine Service picked up Osland in his combat fatigues at O'Hare, brought him to Grandma's house and didn't charge him for the $60 ride.

"It was great; really, really nice of him," Osland says.

"It was just the most wonderful Christmas present. It had a lot of meaning to me," says Miller, who left work early for a long lunch. "It was like a miracle. They didn't even say, 'Well, look, lady…' They made it happen. It was just the most wonderful gift a grandmother can have."

Make that two grandmothers. Osland's other grandma, Barbara Osland, met the pair for lunch at Colonial Cafe, one of the restaurants the soldier used to visit when he lived here as a kid.

Reluctant to talk about his gift, Keen calls it an "opportunity" to give something back, regardless of the season or feelings about the war.

"You can hate the war and love the soldier. That's really the long and the short of it," Keen says.

The soldier's parents -- Tom and Cindy Osland, both 1981 graduates of St. Charles High School -- say the visit did their son a lot of good.

"It just was so nice his flight got canceled twice," says Cindy Osland in a statement perhaps never uttered about an O'Hare layover. Returning to his childhood home and connecting with grandmas carries a lot of value for a man who has been at war.

"He's grown up a lot this past year," says Cindy Osland, recounting extra-tight hugs at the homecoming. "He's seen a lot of things. He just really appreciates everything he has in his life."

Her soldier son agrees.

"Certain things you do appreciate more when you haven't had it," he says.

"It made me so happy, I'll think of it the rest of my time," says Miller. "It put a smile on my face. It's just a lovely little Christmas story."

And so it goes.