A Meeting 83 Years in the Making
- Forever Promise Project
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Journalist Greg McQuede’s “I Have a Story,” introduces viewers to James Midkiff — a man still carrying the quiet weight of a loss that occurred more than eight decades ago.
James was just six months old when his father, Staff Sergeant Frank Midkiff, was killed after his B-17 was shot down during World War II. Only 21 years old, Frank was laid to rest at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, where nearly ten thousand American service members are buried or commemorated.
What makes Margraten extraordinary is the Dutch tradition of grave adoption. For more than 80 years, grateful citizens of the Netherlands have voluntarily cared for each grave and every name on the Walls of the Missing. It is their enduring way of saying, thank you for the liberation of their country.
Through the work of the Forever Promise Project, Greg McQuede helped orchestrate a long-awaited meeting between James Midkiff and Marco Bastin, the 38-year-old Dutch adopter who has faithfully tended his father’s grave. It was, in every sense, a moment of healing: a reminder that remembrance, when shared, has the power to mend even the oldest wounds.
“Marco, I can’t say thank you enough,” said Mr. Midkiff during their conversation. “The fact that you people care enough to take your time… it means a lot. You are like family.” Marco responded with equal warmth: “We will do it with a lot of love and respect for your father. It’s a surprise for me that there is a son that I can speak with now. And I hope that my daughter will do the same for your father and keep the memory living.”
Stories like this affirm why the Forever Promise Project matters. They transform history from something distant and abstract into something deeply human.
We are grateful to Greg McQuede for sharing his time and experience covering this incredible connection made by the Forever Promise Project with such precision and moving words.
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