Sentimental Sunday The Hero Helped Vietnam Refugees

The Hero 

This will not give exact dates, as I do not have them. They are in the Hero's Journals that were lost.
The Hero was in the Reserve Army Medical Corps.    In 1975-1976 Fort Chaffee became one of the processing camps for the refugees from Vietnam after the war.  The Hero's troop was one of the many that rotated through to assist in the medical screenings and treatments for them.  
He enjoyed this time and developed great respect for those that he met while working there.  He often would wonder what happened to them and if his troop had helped any.
In the late 80's, he was going to a dental school to have his teeth done.  The student who drew him for the dental work was oriental.  He asked her where she was from. When she told him that she was from Vietnam, he told her about his experience.  Lo and Behold.  It turned out she was there with her mother at the exact same time as he had been.  She said that the Army troops had been very nice and she was so thankful she had been given the chance to come here from Vietnam with her mother.
I wish I had his journals because he wrote her name and the special feelings it gave him that he had been a part of this young lady being able to be in this great country and learning a profession, which she probably would not have been able to do back at Vietnam.  They had wonderful conversations about her experiences when he went to have his teeth done.   It was sad when she moved on to other classes and was no longer his student dentist.  She knew he wished her all the best.
The Hero was a part of history.

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Fell Asleep On the RailRoad

I was reading in a notebook we had kept the last few weeks of the Hero's life.  He had gone over stories with our third daughter as a exercise in memory and telling her the stories.  She wrote them down.
There was one in which she was a major player and remembered more that he did.  Well I will let you decide if that is true or not, but I believe you will agree with her.

As told to Milly and edited by her:  She said why is it me who takes the heat... he fell asleep!   ; )

"It had been a long Wednesday.  We had gone to youth activity and he worked in the church clerk office while I attended our youth activities.  It was late when we left town, and started up the long dark country roads to get home.  He seemed to be okay and chatted back at me, answering questions.  Then we came to a stop sign just before we crossed a railroad track.  He stopped, then started up turn and stopped with the front wheels on the railroad track and fell asleep.  Just down the track was a train coming!  

(She says she never felt Perilous Pauline... I would have.)

His memory and mine are different perspectives due to adrenaline rush at the time.  I remember at first thinking this is really stupid, why are we stopped here?  I looked over at daddy and knew he was asleep and thought, if I don't wake him up we might get hit. (no duh, my interjection) I also thought, 'I might get yelled at if I wake him up.'  Logic overcame and I called at him and shook him to wake him up.  He woke up and moved forward across the tracks to the other side in plenty of time. "
So who do you think would have remembered it better?   This became a long term discussion and tease of the dad. He was comfortable enough with his weaknesses that he could laugh about it and tell the story on himself.   It was even included at his funeral by his special friend.
The hero loved his children and the thought that he could have been a cause of harm to one upset him greatly. He loved them so very much.  I will interject, he did go to a sleep study and they found an oxygen deficit.  He had an oxygen machine for sleep.  There is a reason for everything.

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Was Thoughtful to the End

Have been avoiding writing about the Hero's last months, but as I have been following FootNoteMaven 's challenges as her husband is recovering from a heart attack  the memories have flooded back.  It is not quite the same because the Hero had col-rectal cancer and the end was creeping in.

I was so blessed by his thoughtfulness.  It was hard to let him go, but it was understood by him and me that it was going to be a temporary separation.  He knew I didn't want him to go, but knew it was going to happen.

When Maven was talking about Mr Maven telling her he loved her through the C-Pap mask.  I was taken back to a time when I was draining the fluids out of the Hero's chest with a vacuum bottle.  It had to have hurt just my moving the chest tube around, but he looked at me through the oxygen mask and said... with a smile, "I love you".  I love him too.

The Hero with two grandchildren 

After his death, two of his friends shared stories of things he had said to them.  One had asked him if he felt like Job because of a chain of events he had experienced. He told him no, that he had a personal angel with him that loved him that Job didn't have.  (You know how that made me feel)

The other friend said they had been joking while he was watching the Hero so I could go to the store.  All of a sudden the Hero stopped and said "She has been an angel to me. I love her."  

These were little gifts he left me that I hold on to, knowing one day I will see him again.  

I am able to talk about this a little at a time now, it is not easy, but I need to begin opening that door.

Sentimental Sunday: The Hero, His Religious Beginnings for the 109th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy

Created by FootNoteMaven

 This is for the 109th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. 

The topic for this edition of the COG is: Where did your ancestors worship? 

This is also for the Hero's grandchildren who would not know he grew up as a member of the Catholic Church.  The Hero said he vividly remember attending church when he was little.  A favorite story of his was once when leaving mass, his dad reached out to swat the hero's sister on the bottom for something only to have her move and he swatted a lady who was walking by.  There were apologies, and embarrassed faces, but it made for a great memory for the Hero.    

The Hero's mother left the Church of Christ to become Catholic and marry his father in the Catholic Church.  There were actually long years of persecution by her family for choosing to change her faith. 

Lillian Sackley Ellsworth, his grandmother and her ancestors as well as his grandfather, Edward N Ellworth, and his ancestors were Catholic.  I found the Heimbach family in Germany in Catholic church records.  I found the proof for the spelling of the  Aylwards in Prince Edward Island Catholic Church records.

The Hero' GreatGrandFather.  Found on FamilySearch.org

He completed his Catechism study. It has changed since he took the lessons. He took his first Holy Communion.  He was an alter boy.  At one time, he thought he might want to be a priest.  
Then he met a young lady and married her, only to have her divorce him.  Because he was a good guy and knew it would be ugly, he would not go through the process to have the divorce annulled by Catholic Church, therefore he left the faith of his ancestors when he when he asked me to marry him.  His new faith would be a topic for a different blog post.

Created by Hummer

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Was Concerned About His County Early

At an early age, the Hero was drawn to politics and righting the wrongs of the world.  At Jr High age, he listened to the news.  One night he heard someone talking about communism in the world and its dangers.  He was distraught his history teacher had not spoken of this.  The second night of listening, he heard about a film that he could get that was for informing the community about the dangers of communism.  He was fired up.
He began by asking his history teacher if he could have an after school meeting that it would be about current events regarding communism.  The answer was yes as long as there was a supervisor there.  He called the number he had gotten from the radio, and arranged for someone to come to the school the day scheduled and show the film.  He made up a letter explaining about the film and asking for permission for the students to come to it, and sent it out to their parents.  The responses came back positive, and the stage was set.
Unfortunately for him, someone, I don't know if he ever knew who it was, called the principal's office and complained and asked for it to be stopped.  It must have been someone of influence, because they had him cancel the film showing and suspended him a couple of days for organizing it.  He was dumbfounded and could not understand why his parents would not stand up for him. (When he told me about this, he was still perplexed as to why when there had been notes of consent, and there had been full disclosure that this happened. )   He did not remember who he had been listening to but even at adulthood, he said the message had made a mark on his understanding of the danger to his beloved United States of America.

I have searched for what film it could have been and have decided that the film was probably from the John Birch Society or Young American's For Freedom, which was started in Houston.  Which ever, the Hero was conservative and never deviated in his belief that there was a fight against evil for this country.  He wanted his children to have freedom, and the ability to choose.  That was a decision made when he was in Jr High.  I never even thought about it in Jr High.  He was a man of deep convictions.

Sentimental Sunday ... The Hero Was a Prude

I discovered that the Hero was a prude when he made a fashion mistake for "me".  
When we were dating, he always made chatter of being worldly when he was young and how into the social groups he was.  I thought for sure he was a man of the world when we were married. On the other hand he chose a girl from a small town in Oklahoma. 
We lived when the new fad of "Hot Pants"  came to the fashion world.  Trying not to blush here, but the Hero always thought I had good looking legs, so it was natural to him that when the Hot Pants came out he took me to purchase a pair.  The emphasis here is He took Me out to purchase them. 

Hummer in Hot Pants.

I wore them over to his grandmother's where we celebrated Mother's Day with my parents and his, all was fine...other than my dad rolling his eyes.  About a week later, he took me out to eat at a nice restaurant.  At his suggestion, I wore the Hot Pants.   He escorted me in with a beaming smile.  At some point during the evening, I excused myself to the powder room.  I was surprised when I came back to see him looking furtively around the room.  Of course, I asked what was wrong.  His answer set me back in my seat.  "All the men in the room are looking at you."  That of course was not true, but someone must have, because then and there he decided I wouldn't wear the Hot Pants out again in public.  His wife wasn't going to be "looked" at in a "lewd" manner.  I am smiling as I write this because you have to know that I was lucky he didn't pull the table cloth off and wrap it around me as we left.   

You have a wonderful day, I did just writing this.  He was so cute and wonderful.

Sentimental Sunday... The Hero Made Sure His Grandsons Were Texan

When my daughter was pregnant with her last child, the Hero was distraught that his grandchild was going to be born in Idaho, not Texas.  (oh mercy).  When she discovered, she was having twins. He was really beside himself, and began to scheme.
In his mind, if they were born over Texas soil then they would still be Texans.  This was important for him.  He decided he would send a bag of Texas soil to them.  Redbeard could put the bag on the floor, then they would be born over Texas soil. 
When I went up to stay and help the month before they were born he made sure the bag of soil was in my suitcase.  He extracted a promise from the couple that they would do as he asked.  They were game,  Redbeard thought it would be fun.

The twins were born over the bag of Texas soil.  Redbeard was so excited when he looked out their hospital window and saw the Texas Flag flying over the Texas Roadhouse on the next block.



This should have been enough for the Hero, but no... He wrote to the Governor Rick Perry's office and told them about the soil, the flag, and asked if they could be made honorary Texas Citizens.  Lo and Behold...   They said yes, and sent certificates to the twins.
They are honorary Texans to carry out their grandfather's wishes that they be born as close to Texas as he could get them.

Got Dirt?

This is not the bag, but it is just like what he sent.  He was so funny.