Page 40 - Anthology

Nichols Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky
August 1944
Southern Bell Telephone Co

Robert was attached to Nichols General Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, when the war ended. I recall
that Nichols hospital was a very crude and crowded place. Robert was in Nichols General Hospital and I
was living in Louisville with my sister. I was seeing him just about every day. We joked all the time that
he never did propose to me. I can still see him sitting on that bed in the hospital and remember his
saying: “We are going to get married – aren’t we?”

Robert and I married in July 1945. He was on furlough (or medical leave) from the Hospital, so we were
able to go wherever he chose. On the third Sunday of every August, the neighboring communities came
together for the annual home-coming. All of those folks who were living and/or working elsewhere would
gather home for that occasion. The picnic tables (maybe 60 feet long) would be loaded with food. Each
family took enough food for their own, but everyone selected what they wanted from all the tables. We
were at one of those get-togethers when we heard that the war was over. Robert’s brother (the one who
had survived the Battle of the Bulge) heard on a radio in a little country store that Japan had surrendered.
He came back to the picnic area and made the announcement on the loud speaker. There were shouts
of joy!

The men back then came out of the war and got busy. They didn’t want to talk; they wanted to get on
with life. He tried to put the war behind him, but the war never ended for Robert. He was quiet and would
not talk about the war. He would answer direct questions, but he really did not like talking about the war.

Robert joined several veterans’ organizations, and, through these connections, he began to talk some
about his experiences during the war. One of the Christian schools in our city required, as part of the
curriculum, that eighth-grade students interview a World War II veteran. Several children came to our
home and he was glad to tell them some of his experiences and to let them know that war is a terrible
thing. He would show them some mementos – a pay slip, my picture, the shrapnel that pierced his body,
etc. He told one little girl, “There’s got to be a better way. Franklin D. Roosevelt was right when he said,
‘War is hell’”.

In later years Robert had problems with fire. He did not like the smell of smoke from a candle or the smell
of brewing tea. He often had flashbacks that would cause him to become teary eyed. He also had
nightmares.