Saturday, February 27, 2016
My phone rang this morning from an unknown number. For those of you who know me, know that I don’t typically answer my phone unless I know who is calling. As it rang, something said to me, “answer it”. On the other end of the call was Tom Child. Mr. Child , age 97, is a World War II veteran who served at Pearl Harbor. In my efforts to organize local WWII veterans for interviews at the Hancock HIstorical Museum over the last month, he was a gentleman I really hoped to include in our program. I knew however, from speaking with his daughter previously, that he might be hesitant, due to some recent health issues.
As our phone call began, we were both struggling to find our voices, as it is likely that we were both speaking aloud for the first time this morning. I chuckled and said that “we were both fighting frogs in our throats this morning”.
I took the opportunity to explain the project and extended the opportunity to participate. He shared how he has lost his ability to be conversational after being hospitalized a year or so ago. He shared that he felt he would be a “negative” on what I was trying to accomplish. I told him that I respected his decision, that I only wanted to offer the opportunity.
He was thankful for what I had set out to do, but that he just didn’t think he could remember much to share. He shared that he had started to write things down and I offered to help him put together those writings and even type them so they could be preserved. He talked about his five children and how he often refers to them by child 1,2, 3, 4 or 5. I told him I understood those struggles; because, even at 44 I often mix up my 3 kids names. He was surprised to hear that at “such a young age”, I would struggle with that.
He talked about how time moves so quickly and I acknowledged “so much faster than I would like sometimes”. He again told me what a wonderful thing I was doing and I urged him to hold onto my phone number and call me if I could ever help him with his writing. I told him how much I enjoyed the opportunity to speak with him this morning.
His last word to me as he hung up the phone was “Aloha”
____________________________________________________________________________
The phone call lasted seven minutes, it ended at 9:29 am. It is currently 10:09 and I have not stopped crying since then. I am not sure exactly what has caused this in me.
Perhaps, it is the stark reminder once again of how fragile life and our minds are.
Perhaps, it is such a crashing realization how important it is document things as we experience them. Perhaps, it is the hurt in my heart that I never took the time to have these conversations with both of my Grandfathers who were part of this generation.
Whatever the cause, I am thankful for my time with Mr. Child this morning. Our talk this morning has been one of the most moving conversations I’ve ever experienced.
Thank you, Mr. Child for our talk and your service to our country. I am forever grateful for both!
