I’m sorry to hear all of this. And I know this is far from comparable, but I thought I’d share this with you.
When we moved here from Europe 40 years ago, kids in the neighborhood used to throw tomatoes at us and call us “Foreigners”. One of the kids threw a rock once, my dad said, enough was enough - and gave the boy a time out in the corner. (he called the parents and advised them of the situation). He tolerated tomato throwing, but rock throwing a a huge no-no in our family.
Little did those boys know that the reason we were in Europe was because my father was serving his country overseas.
“my father was serving his country overseas.”
Let me fix that - “serving our country” - overseas.