A San Marcos couple has turned their Thanksgiving feast into an annual show of gratitude for local Marines.
For the past 20 years, Tweet and Rex Edmunds have been hosting two Marines at their home for Thanksgiving dinner. This year, a special guest from more than a decade ago returned to the couple’s table.
Thirteen years after his first encounter with the Edmunds, Staff Sergeant Will Bradley found himself back at the couple's table surrounded by the same love and warmth.
“I love the fact that we are reunited after 13 years,” Bradley said. “They have always been on the back of my mind.”
Like the two young Marines sitting next to him, he was once spending one of his first holidays away from home when he met the Edmunds.
“They actually came out, brought me here and hung out with me,” he said. They helped me out through that time.”
Tweet says the tradition started when they answered a newspaper ad two decades ago. They’ve enjoyed hosting a pair of Marines at their home ever since. One of the two Marines that joined them last year enjoyed their first Thanksgiving meal ever, Tweet said.
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Also at the table Thursday were Private First Class Selena Jentz, another Marine, and a few of the Edmunds’ friends who have enjoyed celebrating America’s service members with them over the years.
“Rex and Tweet didn't have to do all this, but because they love our country and they love those who serve, they do bring us in,” Bradley said.
Still, the Edmunds wish they could do more.
“The Marines that were directing traffic, checking the ID, they asked, ‘Can you take any more?’ Which indicates not enough people are taking care of them,” Rex said.
Anyone interested in hosting Marines for Thanksgiving next year can contact the Armed Services YMCA in San Marcos.
