Monday, Jun 17, 2024 4:09 PMUpdated Tuesday, Jun. 18, 2024 3:06 PM
‘It’s a picture of him doing what he did every day, and that was to be the best person he could,’ Bryan Welker says
Durango resident Bryan Welker says he is 99.9% certain this is a picture of his father, Richard Welker, rising from his wheelchair for flag bearers. The image with the caption, “The only person standing... is the man in a wheelchair,” has been circulating online for years. Welker first saw it in a chain email he received Friday.
Durango resident Bryan Welker says he is 99.9% certain this is a picture of his father, Richard Welker, rising from his wheelchair for flag bearers. The image with the caption, “The only person standing... is the man in a wheelchair,” has been circulating online for years. Welker first saw it in a chain email he received Friday.
When Bryan Welker opened his email Friday morning, he was shocked to find a viral photo that has been circulating on the internet for more than two decades depicting a man Welker said is obviously his own father.
The photo shows a man in a wheelchair doing his best to stand as the flag bearers in a parade approach his position on the parade route. The image shows about five other people to his left who remain seated on the curb. A caption in the upper left reads: “The only person standing... is the man in a wheelchair.”
Even though the man’s face is turned away from the camera, Welker said he is 99.9% certain it is his father: Richard Welker, a U.S. Navy veteran, American history teacher and father of three who died in 2006 in Riverside, California.
What makes him so sure?
The man is wearing the same signature jacket and unmistakable plaid pants that his father used to wear. And the wheelchair has green armrests and a red bag hanging off the back – just like his father’s. When he forwarded the image to the rest of his family, they all agreed it couldn’t be anyone else.
“It was truly one of my proudest moments,” Welker said after opening the email and realizing who was in the photo. “It’s a picture of him doing what did every day, and that was to be the best person he could.”
Welker opened the email on Friday, which fittingly was national Flag Day. He said it was embedded in a mass email intended to stoke feelings of patriotism and possibly scorn for those who are insufficiently patriotic.
He had never seen the photo before, but it has been circulating for years and shared on websites like Reddit, Pinterest and old online chat rooms. He believes the photo was taken in the late 1990s in Riverside, California.
Durango resident Bryan Welker says he opened an email on Friday to find a viral image of his father standing for flag bearers at a parade several decades ago in California. (Courtesy of Brian Welker)
Durango resident Bryan Welker says he opened an email on Friday to find a viral image of his father standing for flag bearers at a parade several decades ago in California. (Courtesy of Brian Welker)
The photograph with the added caption has sparked heated debates in some internet circles about modern America’s supposed lack of patriotism. But ironically, Welker said the most notable trait of his father’s love for his country was how subtle he was in expressing it.
“He wasn’t wearing red, white and blue face paint and screaming at people,” Welker said. “He wasn’t saying, ‘How are you going to make America great?’ You know what he did? He showed it.”
The most beautiful thing about being an American, according to Welker’s father, was having the freedom to chose whether or not to stand for the flag, his son said.
“When he was in the Navy he said he was always happy to get back to an American port,” Welker said. “Because every country he went to, there’s was always people trying to get out, and in America people were only trying to get in.”
Welker said what touched him most was that someone else was moved enough to stand up and take the photo. Because of that, Richard Welker has done in death as he did in life, which is to lead by example and allow his actions to speak louder than words, Welker said.
“He wasn’t a radical patriot, he was an everyday patriot,” Welker said. “But in the Scouts, he made sure we got our patriotism merit badges, made sure we understood the flag wasn’t just a symbol, it’s a representation of how you feel.”
nmetcalf@durangoherald.com
