Hi, I'm Dave Ice, founder of StoryCorps.

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial.

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For additional information, visit dignity memorial.com. Hey there listeners, it's Jasmine Morris, and this is the StoryCorps

podcast from NPR. This week we're going to share a story from our Military Voices

Initiative. We're remembering Marine Corporal Daniel McMurray.

His widow, Cynthia Alvarez, told us about the early days

of their relationship,

when it didn't always seem like they were a great match.

At first, I was shocked that I was dating a man who was Marine Corps

because I'm a peace activist.

But our first date, I learned so much about him on that day.

Dan enlisted in the Marines immediately after he graduated from high school.

It was

hard-core sometimes and I think that was the military training. I remember him yelling and I said

well we're not having any of that here in our house. We speak with

gentle words. Eventually, he started to adapt. And that was the Dan I loved, the

kind man, the man who would drive for hours just to get me a gluten-free

meal. And we loved good food. If anybody knows Dan, Dan loved his pizza, he

loved his pretzels. he was like a big kid. I didn't always agree with him

clearly, but we agreed on loving each other. Later on, he got sick.

...