Grandpa

I received an email from the WWII Memorial Folks containing info about my Grandpa Alfred. These are little details that Ive always wondered about.

He was Private First Class in the 104th Infantry Regiment,26th Infantry Division. He was killed on March 14 th,1945 in the Battle of the Bulge and he's buried in Luxemborg.

Did I ever tell that story? He and some other guys were in a fox hole; they were completely out of ammunition and surrounded. A young man (18 years old) decided he would run across the field thus drawing attention away from the other soldiers and they could make a run for it. My Grandpa Alfred pulled him back down into the fox hole..and ran across the field himself.

He was the only man in his Infantry to die that day. The only one. can you imagine that?

For a long time my Nanna never knew what happened and really I don't think she wanted to know. Out of the blue though....that 18 year old showed up at her door and told her the entire story. My mom is the one that answered the door and stood transfixed as this young man spun tales about her father.

My mom was born in 1944 so she has very vague memories of him. My Nanna told me that she dreamt of his face when she was 11 years old...so when she met him when she was about...19..I think...She had no doubts that she would marry him. And after he passed she never married another...and always spoke about Him as if he was still around somehow. She believed that she had been visited by his spirit many times as she slept.

She did complain about his reading the entire newspaper before talking to her in the morning...she totally hated that. :)

One by one they appear in the darkness: a few friends, and a few with historical names. How late they start to shine! but before they fade they stand perfectly embodied, all

the past lapping them like a cloak of chaos. They were men who,I thought,lived only to renew the force they spent with each hot convulsion. They remind me, distant now.

True, they are not at rest yet but now they are indeed apart, winnowed from heroism, they withdraw to an Orbit and turn with hard energy,like the stars.

-Thom Gunn

Everyone Be well

Peace