When she was 16, my grandmother, Hannie Reed, drove a wagon in the Oklahoma land rush.

We are now living on Internet time. It's a new territory, and the cyber equivalent of the Oklahoma land rush is on.

My grandmother used to go with her church to visit the soldiers at Walter Reed. But she had to stop. Couldn't take it anymore. She was a nurse at Georgetown University Hospital for 30 years, and she had seen a lot. But seeing all of those boys coming back from Iraq -- hundreds of them, 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds -- all torn apart like that, it just broke her heart.

The band is growing and the wagon keeps coming. The Clan is expanding; the Tribe keeps increasing; stretching miles away o'er land and sea! Each hoping; each yearning with longings to meet someday!

The word's out: I'm a woman, and I'm going to have trouble backing off on that. I am what I am. I'll go out and talk to people about what's happening to their families, and when I do that, I'm a mother. I'm a grandmother.

But no one has found one buried on land; this was quite a surprise to everybody.