Grandpa Freddy was personally selected to be the man for Rosemary by his future Mother-in-law. She was another force to be reckoned with like his own Mother. Jeannette Swan Robert was a woman who was dealt some harsh blows in her life.
Her husband, the father of her 3 girls died in 1944 Rosemary was barely 8 years old. My great-grandpa Floyd died due to a doctors error it didn’t have to happen. Yet… life hit them in the face and Rosie had to grow up fast and help her mom take care of her little sisters. Fast forward a bit to Jeannette with all of her kids. She ended up having 5 girls and a boy.
Great-Grandma Jeannette would eventually be married 5 times. She was protective of her daughters and when Freddy became family; she gained a son-in-law that would also protect and care for all her daughters and son who would be the same age as his own little girl. Our family history here gives more context to the next section of Uncle Tom’s story.
Now I can understand to some extent a portion of their love story better. Going through my own pen-pal of sorts relationship definitely understanding the long-distance aspect. As I read through his words once again with a fresh perspective on my own relationship it gives me goosebumps. “My sister was in school and my dad was building a power plant (we’re from Texas) and my sister went to school with Helen and had Helen pen-pal with me and I kind of fell in love with her and I bought the rings and everything I was going to marry this girl even though I hadn’t seen her yet.”
“When I got home and I met her I still loved her and I told her I loved her very much and I wanted to marry her. But she was still in high school and she was finishing up I think she was in her last semester or whatever and uh… I told her I’d wait for her and marry her when she graduated and I’d go to Fort Ridge, Alabama cause I was going to helicopter repair school for… I got out about 3 months, 4 months training. Got through that and I was a helicopter repairman, but I never did work on helicopters after that I was transferred from there to Fort Lewis in Washington.”
Life comes fast sometimes. This young couple wasn’t ready for what was to come. Two back to back situations are hard to dig out of emotionally and physically. While at Fort Lewis Aunt Helen became pregnant and had their first child in Seattle. Then in a short time found out her step-father had died. She took the baby and went home for the funeral, but didn’t come back right away. Complications had set in with the baby Uncle Tom had in total had to take two emergency leaves for the birth of his little girl and for the complication that they found out was contracting the measles.
The army didn’t like two emergency leaves, but both times were absolutely important. Two weeks after the step-fathers funeral another funeral was at hand. “I stayed there for a while and Helen was very depressed, but she came back with me and I got orders to go to a duty assignment.”
Loss and depression are such inconsolable holes at times to face. I could see in his face as he talked about this and how troubling it still was for him. He blamed himself for his baby’s death… this loss essentially sent him to Vietnam.
Did you go into the service after a loss, breakup or something major that happened in your life? Did you need a distraction and you thought war was the answer?
Jewells of Thought 
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