Wednesday, February 7, 2018

A Brother Missing In Action

I have heard this story only once and that with some help from Marie's brother, Charlie. So if there are mistakes please bear with me.
Marie told me this story one day before she got so ill. On her good days, Marie could tell one story one right after the other, so that sometimes you had to listen very carefully to discern where one ended and another one began.
Bob, kneeling
Joe to the right
One afternoon when she had come home after being in the center she started telling me about her brother Bob. I had never heard this story before and I was absolutely astonished. Bob was in the Navy and his ship had been shot and lost the rudder and couldn't get a direction. They went around and around in circles for days. They finally were found by another ship. They towed them in to Bar Harbor, Maine. Of course, Marie's family knew nothing of this only that he was missing in action and presumed dead. After much grieving Marie's mother called the priest. He and the family decided on having a funeral for Bob even though he had never been found. As her family and the priest were visiting the door opened and there was her brother, Bob! At this point the details are murky because Charlie was too young to remember and Marie is no longer able to supply any more details. Marie said her mother almost fainted. She could not believe her eyes.
Marie's parents had three sons in the service at the same time. Bob was in the Navy as well as Joe. Joe got tuberculosis while in the service and was ill for a long period of time. Hector was in the Army and was in the Aleutian Islands when Japan attacked. I can't even imagine the worry that Marie's parents went through having their sons in active duty.
When Charlie decided to join the Navy it wasn't war time and Marie told me that her mother was not a bit happy with him because it was not wartime, therefore he had no reason to join the service. As he will tell you, as did his parents, Charlie joining the Navy gave his parents a trip of their dreams to Hawaii that Marie told me about a lot. They had such a good time.

4 comments:

  1. My grandmother (Maries mother) proudly displayed photo's of all her sons in their service uniforms in the living room.

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    1. That would make any mother proud, PHyllis, would have loved to have seen those.

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    2. A big thank you to Jeannine for sending me this picture for the post. It is just beautiful.

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