ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla — We like to pride ourselves on recognizing those who serve to protect our freedom. In this week's Stories of Service we focus on a young girl from Atlantic Beach who is keeping the memory alive of one specific servicemember.
We'd like to take you intro the "not-so-imaginary" world of the book A Purple Heart Christmas.
"Before the show started Dylan said, 'hey grandpa, does Taylor's chain for her purple heart pendent look familiar?', read Taylor Salerno from her book A Purple Heart Christmas, which was written last year when she was 13 years old.
A Purple Heart Christmas is a children's book about a young girl who makes a wish on Christmas while visiting family in New York City. The wish for the character Taylor in the book was to spend a day with her great-grandpa Pat, who was a veteran who passed away before she was born. And yes, it's based on real life.
Exactly like the book, Taylor's great-grandpa Pat was a real person and was even awarded the Purple Heart in World War 2.
"I always wanted to meet him and I thought it was pretty cool hearing all the stories and how he fought for our country," said Taylor.
In real life, Patrick Carmody fought in the Pacific in World War 2 and was awarded the Purple Heart after diving on the back of a fellow servicemember when a grenade went off during combat in 1944. Taylor's family has her great-grandfather's Purple Heart to this day and her brother Dylan from the book, he's real too.
We won't tell you how the story ends, you'll have to read the book to find out for yourself, but turning a Language Arts class project into a book was a process that took Taylor nearly a full year to complete.
"This is actually a lot harder than I thought it would be," said Taylor, "the hardest part was getting it illustrated because I had to make sure that I looked like me, Dylan looked like him or everyone looked like they look like and we had a little trouble having my grandpa look right."
Fortunately the illustrator captured Grandpa Mitch and the rest of the characters perfectly. A Purple Heart Christmas takes fun twists and turns on a new story for the holidays, but Taylor has an extra message for kids that goes beyond the story.
"I hope that they learn more about the Purple Heart and their appreciation for great-grandfathers or veterans who fought in the war," said Taylor.
All veterans, especially one near and dear to a young girl's heart.
For more information about the book A Purple Heart Christmas visit: apurpleheartchristmas.com or https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Heart-Christmas-Taylor-Salerno/dp/B0BGN8XYQW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
If you have a Story of Service that you would like us to profile, send us an email to storiesofservice@firstcoastnews.com.