There is a BLIZZARD out there right now. Honestly, a white-out, of the sort we used to get in northern Indiana. Dude, does that suck or what? Fortunately it isn't sticking but I hope Rosie, who is on the road right now, can see where the heck she's going.
Howard, her daddy, went to Thornton Terrace this morning. He wasn't happy about it but he submitted to it like a man, Rosie said. "He's a hell of a man," she said. Indeed he is.
Rosie told me a touching story about him yesterday. She's told me many touching stories about him, how he would read the comics and the Bible and stories to her when she was a little girl, the only child. I can readily picture the two of them. But she discovered this one since her mother died a month ago. Clara was a "pack rat" and saved every bill and every piece of correspondence they'd received over seventy-plus years. Rosie found an anonymous letter.
Howard was twenty-nine when we entered World War II. He had a very bad case of stomach ulcers and when he tried to enlist, he was rejected as "4-F." He was a patriot and was dismayed and he tried again a number of times to enlist but was always rejected. "They also serve who stand and wait." If Howard had faced our enemies in combat, he would have acquitted himself as bravely and honorably as the next man, I do believe.
Rosie told me about the letter. Someone -- someone who didn't divulge their identity -- does anybody appreciate how repugnant, how vicious such ambushes from hiding are? -- wrote a letter to his home saying that he or she thought the Kroger store had good meats, but that the one who cut them and sold them was a "sissy" -- I think that's the term the anonymous writer used -- because he hadn't gone off to the war.
Clara saved that letter and I'm glad she did, because Rosie saw it, told me about it, and I'm writing about it on the "world wide web" to declare to all the world that Howard Lawrence Jones, father of my wife, was no "sissy," but a brave and good man, a man of Tom Brokaw's "greatest generation."
So, with lots of love and much great misgiving, Rosie deposited her ancient dad in the old folks' home today. He will be fine. He has always coped. He will abide until his time comes. Amen.
2 comments:
My love to Rosalie in having made such a difficult decision for her father. Yes, he sounds like one "helluva good man." The things that we find out about our parents after their passing, or as in this case the letter that her mother had kept, raise our opinions of our parents above anything we could ever before imagine. I never realized what a true gentleman my father was until his passing. My mother, God bless her sweet heart and good intentions, often got in between Daddy and we children--her need to control I believe. I miss him so much--just sitting and talking as we often did when they visited and we would go to Roger's Corner for lunch. We would sit there and eat that delicious potato salad and talk about life and death. Those days are gone. I don't wish them back but I certainly do cherish them.
So now Mr. Jones is in the finest elder facility that your community has and he will eventually adjust with the help of his family. He is lucky to have a daughter who has been able to care for him and her mother so graciously and continually. May God bless Rosalie and bring peace and good care in her future. I know that you can help ease her burden and I hope that you will. She sounds like a "helluva good woman," someone for the rest of us to learn from.
Thanks, Donna. You are kind-hearted.
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