Well, we sure proved them wrong. Even when my darlin’, Jerry, was at war, I was at war too. He was a warrior, and I was too. Let me tell ya’. Oh my goodness it is quite the little story- and a sad one too. Oh, those were the hardest of times. I missed my honey quite a lot. This one picture was what made my mouth start flabbin’ after all these years of silence. Here, I hold a picture of my Jerry and me, the picture that made me finally tell my story:
You see, Jerry and I met in high school. While he attended St. Patrick’s All Boys School, I attended St. Mary’s All Girls School. The two schools had frequent get togethers, like the Winter Wonderland Ball and such. But Jerry Johnson was the most popular boy of his class, and all the girls went crazy for him. Oh my, he was a dreamer! At the Spring Fling Dance, he asked to dance with me. What a night! After our first dance, he asked me to milkshakes and soon we were going steady. We fell in love. Jerry and Annie, Annie and Jerry. I fell hard for that man.By the end of high school, I was plannin’ on goin’ to college in New York to get some more learnin’, but Jerry was going to war. Oh, what a sad situation it was. Two love birds bein’ separated into different nests. Oh my goodness, thinkin’ about it makes me tear up. We knew we were gonna’ be together for the rest of our lives. We just knew it.
Jerry left on a rainy July day of the year 1941. I was a wreck. I thought it was the end of us, I really did. Oh, my I can't stand to think of that sad, sad day. The first week was the worst, and people did assure me that as time went on, times would get easier, but they sure didn't. I wanted my man home more than ever. A month later, I attended St. Katherine’s College for girls, and focused in all my classes, and got some more learnin'. But more and more of the girls in my classes started droppin' out and attendin' nursing school or industrial work in the city. The classes were slim, but I enjoyed it because I was gettin' lots of extra learnin', I loved school. I loved it.
Jerry wrote me very often. He'd tell me about his adventures and his buddies. He'd often send me photos too. With this photo, he told me that he's with his buddies at the camp. It felt refreshing to see him okay, but it hurt me and only made me want to see him more.
He told me how his friend, Charlie, had a girl at home too, and she was expectin'. And she was in New York, too! He gave me her name, Rose Hienz, and I thought of callin' her up. I thought, she'll probably need some helpin' once her baby comes.Rose was delighted to hear from me, because she was strugglin' with bein a single mom. When we first met, her belly was big- very, very big. I'd hadn't held a baby in years, not since I was babysittin' for my neighbors, the Robinsons. I thought the kids were rotten and I didn't want nothin' to do with them. But when Rose gave birth to a baby boy, I fell in love with the child. She named him Johnny, and I loved that baby very, very much. Rose needed me just as much as I needed her. Both of our loved ones were gone at war, and we were both messes, the two of us. Rose and I became quite the best friends, I was over at her house every couple days, seein’ how she was doin, and helpin’ her out.
I wished to continue my education at St. Katherine’s, but there were so few other girls in my classes. The school closed down in June 1942, after a year of bein’ there. I was so upset, and the only thing I felt like I could do was be productive for America. America needed me. I knew they needed me, they told me! In the Spring, right before St. Katherine’s closed down, I made my way by this powerful little poster:
I signed up at St. Mary’s Nursing School in New York City, and attended there in September of ’42. I chose nursin’ because I enjoyed the human anatomy course I took at St. Katherine’s. I knew that if I worked for Jerry to come home to me, he would come home to me. His letters always moved me, and reminded me of the love that we shared between us. I was hurtin’ for him to come home, and the harder I worked for it, the sooner he’d come back to me.Nursing School was not like biology class. At the school, I learned quite a lot about nursing and graduated. Rose and Johnny came to my graduation, and even threw a little party for my achievement. Here, I present a picture of me and the other nurses at graduation:
Half of the gals, including me, were sent to France to work at a field hospital. I told Rose that I’d write her as often as I could, I picked up some of my most treasured belongings, and got ready for France. One of the things I brought were some of my favorite letters from Jerry, so that he can talk to me through this written words when I most needed him. This is one of them:
Before leavin’, I wrote him tellin’ him about my new change, and how I’m goin’ to France. He knew about the nursin’ school, but he didn’t know about how I’m travelin’. I didn’t get a letter back from him before I left, but I left him my new address in France. I couldn’t wait to hear from him. I really could not wait for my darlin’ to answer my letter, and I couldn’t wait for the lord to answer my prayers.War was ugly. War was hell. After my first glimpse of a wounded soldier, I wanted nothing but to get out of that place. I couldn’t escape that place. During the day, I was living in hell; at night, I was dreaming the nightmare. Planes fly over the hospital almost every single day, but nobody could hear ‘em. Nope, they only heard the screams from the wounded, almost dead, soldiers. Those men were out there bustin’ themselves out for this war- for America. Most of these boys were my age. It made me think of my love, my sweetheart, my Jerry. Jerry was out there. Jerry was like these men that I was takin’ care of. My Jerry that I missed so much; my Jerry that wouldn’t respond back to my letters; my Jerry that I desperately wanted to come and save me from this hell of a place.
One day, this young man from the German side came to the hospital. He was a sad, sad, sight. The nurses had wished to take blood samples from him but had difficulty in the task. Since he didn’t understand English, he thought we were trying to execute him slowly by drawing out blood. Aw, the poor guy. He was probably so frightened, too. I knew that we were fighting against his country, but I wasn’t gonna’ fight against him. We were in the same place- this miserable hell. I went to his bedside and pulled up a chair. It was somewhat refreshing to just sit. He was barely awake, but I spoke to him and soothingly and as slowly as I could- only to assure him that I wouldn’t hurt him. He never woke up.
Days and weeks and months continued on. Jerry didn’t respond. I took him for dead. I never said it out loud, but I believed it. More time went on, and I wanted desperately to go home. I wanted to run up to my mother and father’s house and just cry for Jerry. I couldn’t show pain there. I felt pain all over- for Jerry, for the soldiers, for the other nurses, but I couldn’t show it. I just couldn’t. I would only add more pain. I became depressed, you see. I became depressed from seeing so much death and pain.
That kinda’ stuff will put you down and eat you up from the inside. I was sick of hearin’ those cries, I was sick of amputations, of anesthesia, of taking care of wounds. I was sick of seein’ all of that sickenin’ stuff I tell ya’. I was sick of it! But most of all, I was sick to my stomach that Jerry was missin’, and I couldn’t see him. It was sickenin’ that I might not ever see his face again. I couldn’t imagine that. I went crazy, I know I did.
This was the only picture I brought along with me of Jerry and I. Not seein' his face ever again in real life was a nightmare, and the only way I'd ever see him again would be in my dreams. I felt like I was livin' my worst nightmare. I was in hell- the field hospital was eatin' me from the inside. I needed him.On July 7th, 1943, a whole wounded and some dead troop came in at the same time. The entire hospital was runnin’ around like crazy people. Doctors were demanding more help, but there wasn’t enough. There just wasn’t ever enough. Five of the fourteen men had no hope for livin’. The other nine were severely wounded and no one knew for sure if they would live to go home. I ran around that place like a crazy woman, goin’ here and there for the docs. They demanded me everywhere. Rumors were that they were walkin’ through a nearby forest and were bombed by overhead airplanes. The poor boys- not expectin’ the worse to happen. I thought of Jerry. Where in the world was he? I prayed that he was ok, or in Heaven. I prayed that he wasn’t like these men here at the hospital. These young men were gonna’ live the rest of their lives without an arm or a leg. So young, too young to loose a body part.
The head of nurses called for me to room four, to take care of one of the wounded soldiers from the troop. She told me all the other nurses were runnin’ around doin’ other things, and he was badly wounded. There was nothin’ the docs could do about him. He had picked up a fatal disease from the camps and had a short time to live. She said I should talk to him for his last few moments of life. I went into room four to see what I could barely call a human. He was bashed up, and I could see that the docs had covered his body up in wraps and gauze. The only part of skin I saw was his eyes and nose, even though one eye was shut closed, and his nose covered in blood. His mouth was lazily open, and half of his teeth were gone. A tear shed down my face. This was too much- this was way too much. I picked up a fresh pair of gloves and medical mask before sittin’ down to the man. His one open eye followed me around the room, and he tried movin’ his mouth, as if to say somethin’ to me. Then, he made the slightest noise that almost sound like my name. I smiled and cried a little to that man. I sat there with the hopeless man, wishing that I could save his life. I wish we could have saved everyone’s life. His one, open, eye continued to stare at me, and I began to feel warm inside. Warm like how I felt with Jerry. I hadn’t felt this way in a long time, not since I had been with him. The man’s last few worlds were “love you” and he died the moment later.
I left his room crying and asked the head nurse for the name of the patient in room four, and she told me that his name was Jerry Johnson.
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