Lillie Marie Johnson clears her mind and closes her eyes and, suddenly, she is back inside the steamy summers of the 1930s, running barefoot over the Appalachian hills and down into the hollers beside her uncle more like a brother, really picking berries and snapping off wildflowers to make bouquets for her Grandma.
As she rocks in her chair in the living room of her home just outside the Ohio River town of Marietta in southeastern Ohio, she snaps open her eyes and realizes that in the here and now, a new and exciting day is coming: Her beloved uncle, Army Pfc. James Wilmer White, is about to be back among the rolling hills of his youth to be buried where he belongs, 77 years after he was killed in action in World War II.