Memorial Day
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I’ve often posted the letter my uncle Bob wrote home to his parents when his twin brother was killed in Korea. Because of the article about Mom and her brothers that was in the paper yesterday, I’d like to share the entire story published by the Jackson Citizen Patriot in 1951.
Curran Family Here Gets Tragic Letter
Brother Killed, Twin Writes From Korea
A young Jackson soldier has had the heartbreaking task of informing his parents that his 21-year-old twin brother apparently died in a Korean battle in which they both participated.
Their chaplain told him that his brother, Pfc. Richart P. Curran, had been killed and his body recovered. Pfc. Robert P. Curran wrote the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert J. Curran 408 N. East.
Although the chaplain reported that Richard died on Oct. 16 , the family has received no notification to this effect from the Defense Department.
The brothers were both members of a cavalry regiment which participated in the fierce fighting for a major hill point on Oct. 16, and it was in that battle that Richard was first listed as missing, Robert wrote. A few days later the chaplain informed him of his brother’s death, he added.
LETTER TEXT
Parts of the text of Robert’s letter to his parents, dated Nov. 12 follow:
“Dearest Mom and Pop,
My writing doesn’t look much like mine. I know I am nervous and I’ve been crying and sick to my stomach.
You wrote me a letter, Pop, and said to let you know if Dick was OK because you hadn’t heard from him. Well I was in hopes that something good would turn up.
Dick was reported missing in action on Oct. 16, and I prayed and prayed and made novena after novena to St. Ann using a prayer Aunt Clara sent me. I have been under a terrific strain since then because of the thought of what might have happened.
Well, I talked to the chaplain about it and he has kept in touch with me. He told me that my brother’s body had been definitely located and identified as killed in action.
He told me that it was a terrible thing, but that it was God’s plans that it be that way. I asked how long it would be before the War department notified you and he said usually between two and three weeks, so he told me to write home and my letter would probably get there first.
FOUGHT AT SIDE
Now my next worry is how you and Mom will take this. I took it very hard. Dick and I scrapped and argued a lot at home, but not over here. He stuck up for me and I for him. We loved each other. In combat we fought elbow to elbow. In a close call he would say, ‘You OK, Bob?’ and I’d say ‘yes’ and vice versa.
I just can’t say any more about this. I am sick and my back aches and everything else… Please, Mom and Pop, try to take this and don’t either of you have a heart attack or anything. As soon as I find out if I can come home with Dick’s body, I’ll let you know.
Your ever loving son.
Bob”
Robert also wrote that the chaplain was checking to see if, as the sole surviving son in the family, he could return home, possibly as the honor guard for Richard’s body.
He mentioned that many of their buddies had been killed in the offensive of Oct. 3-18.
ST. JOHN’S GRADS
The Curran twins entered the Army last March 9. They were stationed at Ft. Custer and Ft. Riley, Kan., before sailing from Seattle July 19. They landed in Korea Aug. 15.
Both boys were graduates of St. John’s High school and attended Assumption college in Windsor, Ont. RIchard was employed at Metalco, Inc., before entering the service.
Besides his parents, Richard is survived by four sisters, Mrs. Charles Terry, Mrs. Robert Parker, and Mrs. Ray Wowianko, all of Jackson, and Mrs. Donald Dice of Albion.
Uncle Dick was buried on my second birthday.
Uncle Bob came home from the war and eventually married his brother’s sweetheart. At first they consoled each other. Then they fell in love. They had 5 children and remained a loving couple until he died in 1997. Rest in peace, dear uncles.
I Went To Walmart and Didn’t Cry
Graves Disease. It sounds scary, but despite numerous unpleasant side effects should be manageable. I hope.
Graves Disease exhausts you and makes you so incredibly weak. About a week ago I went to Walmart and stood in the parking lot crying at the overwhelming thought of putting my groceries into the car.
I thought it might be a good idea to blog about my silly hyperactive thyroid. It could help me remember what to tell my plethora of new doctors, for one thing. And it might be amusing for me to look back and remember how I felt. The only problem is that I’ve just been too exhausted to write. And if I ever had an attention span, it …. well, instead of finishing that sentence I spent the last few minutes staring at my pixelating Netflix movie.
So I guess I can start from here and skip over the last 6 weeks of shaking, sweating, heart racing, weak, headachey, anxious, irritable exhaustion.
The racing heart is being slowed down by medication and some other medication is supposed to slow down my thyroid. Someday. In a few weeks.
Meanwhile, last night I went to Walmart and did not cry in the parking lot. I consider that an improvement. I’ve got to get rid of this brain fog soon, though. When I got home I noticed that my $800 camera was sitting casually on the back floor of my car.
Tornadoes and Ta-Tas Parmigiano, Milan - Friday, August 1st
On Friday afternoon Shawn and Beth and I took off for Milan. It was all very exciting. Sharman drove us to the train station at about 2:00 for our 4 hour ride. The train wasn’t too uncomfortable and they served some delicious espresso about halfway through the trip. The scenery was gorgeous.
When we entered Italy the train stopped and some very serious looking soldiers checked everybody’s passport. We happened to have a young man sitting across from us who was from Florida. He had been studying French and is planning to teach it back home. When they asked if we had anything to declare we all said, “no”, but the young man then asked us what you have to declare. When we told him anything that you bought in Switzerland and are taking into Italy he said that he had some chocolate in his suitcase. I’m sure he didn’t have enough to declare, but we had a good time teasing him about being thrown into an Italian jail. We caught him surreptitiously taking our pictures with his cell phone. I can just see his email home. “Mom, I sat with these old ladies on the train, and they kept me from being arrested.”
We got to Milan and walked out of the biggest train station I’ve ever seen in my life. The picture doesn’t even come close to portraying how massive that building was, and I don’t have the sides included.
This google image gives a better idea of the size of the station.
Here is a random building across the street from the train station.
Shawn had mapped out the directions to our hotel, which was only a few blocks from the station. We got checked in with some difficulty as the clerk didn’t understand much English. But when we got into the room, none of the lights worked. And it was pretty dark for trying to figure out what the problem was. Finally we found this little slot by the door and figured out that you have to stick your room key (the ones that look like credit cards) into the slot to have the electricity work. We were glad we hadn’t called the desk clerk to tell him we had no lights.
Next we headed off to dinner. We bought a ticket on the metro and took it to the Cathedral Plaza which was very near the restaurant we had chosen.
A word about the Cathedral. Well, I can’t even think of a word. When we came up the steps from the metro and saw it, I almost cried. It was that beautiful. Massive. Stunning. Gorgeous. Impressive. Overpowering. Nope. There’s not a word. Pictures definitely do NOT do it justice.
The Cathedral Il Duomo is the third largest church in the world. It took centuries to build and holds 40,000 people. Here’s a picture from a travel site that shows the size a bit better.
I was awed beyond words.
We couldn’t really find the street we needed on a map, so we stopped a young Italian man and asked him if he spoke English. He did, and was very helpful in helping us find the way. He even walked us to the restaurant. Later I found out that he told Shawn she had beautiful eyes and he hoped to see her again!
Anyway, we wanted to eat outside. The restaurant had several tent type canopies, maybe 9 in all set up. There tables and carts with wine glasses and dishes under the tents, which were quite sturdy and had strong looking beams and poles. We were sort of in an alley which was protected on all sides by buildings, but it was charming. This was one part of the view from where I was sitting.
We ordered our dinner and the waiter brought us a bread basket and some wine.
Suddenly out of nowhere an incredibly strong wind came up. The tents started swaying and you could hear glass breaking as bottles and glasses fell off tables. One lady jumped up and ran out from under the tent, but we were sort of stunned and just sat there. Shawn was laughing and we all had put our hands protectively over our wine glasses. I guess that’s where our priorities were.
The wind died down as quickly as it came. I didn’t really think of the danger until I looked to the side and saw our waiter literally wrapped around the tent pole trying to steady it. The poles on the tents to the side of us were bent precariously. Then Shawn said, “Here it comes again!” This gust was even stronger and scarier than the first. We grabbed our wine glasses and ran out from under the tent. Luckily not many people were sitting inside the restaurant, so we were able to go in and sit down. People were pretty shaken.
Then the downpour came. It rained like crazy. I’m not sure if a couple of the tents blew over, or if they took them down. But the poor waiters and busboy were running out and bringing in glasses and bottles and plates. They put tablecloths over their heads, but got soaked to the skin trying to get it all brought inside.
At one point we looked out the door and there stood the guy who had walked us to the restaurant! I’m not sure why he was there (Shawn, ever the optimist, thinks he was worried about us), but we didn’t catch his eye and he finally left.
Now that we were safe inside we got a little giddy. Three things happened that had us dissolving into laughter. First our waiter brought out a salad (which none of us had ordered). He put it on the table along with three plates. Since we speak no Italian we guessed that maybe they were giving us a little bonus because of the storm and the delay in getting our dinner. Shawn doesn’t like tomatoes, so she started moving them over to one side of the plate. She was just ready to dish out three portions when it occurred to our waiter that the salad wasn’t ours. He picked the salad up, and took it right over to another table and set it down in front of a customer. Shawn had been rooting around in it, but he didn’t even pretend to take it into the kitchen and get a different one.
Then our dinner came. The waiter had a large cheese grater which he used with a huge enthusiasm. We tried to say, “No, no. That’s enough”, but he kept right on grating. Cheese was flying everywhere.
A few minutes later I looked over at Shawn. She was wearing a black shirt, and I thought, “I don’t remember that her shirt had that pattern across the chest.” Suddenly I realized that there was cheese ALL OVER her shirt, right across the chest. So much that it looked like a pattern in the shirt. We laughed all night about her “Ta-tas Parmigiano”.
The third thing happened when Beth said she wished she had a spoon to help her eat her spaghetti. We were sitting right next to this sort of buffet table with desserts on top and drawers in the side. Shawn calmly reached over, opened a drawer, pulled out a spoon, and handed it to Beth. I was rolling on the floor laughing. How did she know spoons were in that drawer? And more to the point, how did she have the nerve to open it and get one?
All in all it was a fun evening and a great beginning to our trip. The rain finally died down and we headed back to the metro. There were a bunch of Asian women who were determined to sell us an umbrella, but we managed to get back to the hotel in one piece.
We were so excited that the hotel was air conditioned. There didn’t seem to be any way to control it, though. Later that night I woke up freezing. So I put on my sweatshirt and socks and pulled the hood on my sweatshirt up over my head. Shawn found an extra blanket and poor Beth had to make do with some sort of bedspread thingy. She thought it was a riot to wake up and see me sleeping with my hood over my head. But Milan was hot, hot, hot, so we were glad to have the air.
The Vallorbe Grottos - Thursday, June 30th
After we finished at the fort, we drove a short distance to a park right outside the Vallorbe Grotto, a series of caves at the source of the River Orbe. First we pulled out our picnic lunch and ate by the river.
It was a beautiful spot…
and Angie decided to wade in the river. She found out that it was COLD!
After lunch we walked up a beautiful path toward the caves.
The caves were amazing. I was surprised by all the different textures. Some of the rock looked like it had a layer of oatmeal poured over it, some was smooth, and some was bumpy.
At this point we were told that we weren’t allowed to use flashes, so I turned mine off. Unfortunately the cave was really dark and we moved right along (over slippery steps and bridges) so I didn’t have a lot of time to figure out how to shoot well without the flash.
Some of the rock formations looked like different shapes. Here is the “buffalo.”
Some of the stalactites were hanging straight down and some looked like a twisted ribbon.
We walked through the cave on slippery walkways that went over rushing water in some spots. And there were lots of steps. Remember we went down 150 steps in the fort? Well we also came back UP 150 steps (not counting going up and down steps to different areas of the fort), so we were getting quite tired tromping through the cave. It was fascinating, though.
Water rushing through the cave.
After going through the fort and the caves I think most of us were as tired as Simon.
Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery died. We left the caves and stopped at a roadside stand for ice cream. There was a playground so that the children could run off some steam and some animals to see. Then we drove up to a scenic overlook where we got out and enjoyed the sight of Lake Geneva with the mountains in the background.
Vallorbe, the Pré-Giroud Fortress - Thursday, July 30th
The class took a field trip today to Vallorbe, a city near the border of France and Switzerland. Our first stop was at the Pré-Giroud fortress. This underground fort was built in 1939 to protect the border. Since Switzerland was neutral in World War II, it was never really used for protection, but was a measure of security.
First we all piled onto a bus. Jeff’s son, Max, kept us amused during the hour and a half trip, first with his monster nose
and then with his impression of Gary.
I tried not to look at the drop out the window as the bus drove up a kind of scary mountain path. After we parked we walked a short way to the fort.
There were tanks and barbed wire along the way.
Here is the view from the Pré-Giroud fortress. The French border is just to the left of the middle, where those rows of trees meet.
The part of the fort that is above ground was camouflaged. They painted fake windows on the building so that it would look like a chalet, build fake rock outcroppings to hide machine gun bunkers, and even added fake metal trees. The trees have turned rusty over the years.
Brenda and Max studying the map of fortifications around Vallorbe.
The outside temperature was almost 90 degrees fahrenheit, but inside the fort it was only about 47. So we all put on sweaters and Sharman bundled the baby up for the tour.
After we entered we had to go down 150 steps to get to the main area of the fort.
It was dark, damp, and musty down below ground in the fort. We saw rooms filled with military equipment and then an actual machine gun opening.
Looking down the barrel of the machine gun.
We went down halls filled with weapons, uniforms, and various necessities for living like lanterns and pots and pans. Of course, being Swiss they had their ammunition in cute little baskets.
The living areas were less damp and musty due to various airways and air locks. They depended on the body heat of the soldiers for heating, and it was enough to keep the living areas relatively comfortable. Soldiers went outside a bit each day because it was easy to mix up days and nights being so far underground. It was actually considered a good assignment to be at the fort, as other soldiers were living out in the elements.
Angie needed to make a quick call. 
Resting on a stairway.
Doug was tired and considered climbing in one of the bunks for a nap.
This map was interesting. The Germans, apparently confident in their powers, renamed many Swiss cities with the more German sounding names listed on the map.
The kitchen had all of its original equipment, pots and pans, etc.
Meghan and Karyn grabbed the giant whisk and started to cook us some lunch.
Scenes were set up throughout the fort to give an idea of what it was like when the soldiers were manning it.
No Time for Blogging
I just don’t seem to be able to find the time to blog this year. It may have something to do with the fact that I have a private room, and can go to sleep when I’m tired. I’m still staying up until about midnight, but have been pretty busy.
Another reason for the lack of interesting blogs is the lack of interesting side trips. We’ve all pretty much stayed at the John Knox Center to work on papers, web sites, grant proposals and other schoolwork. A couple of groups did go away last weekend, but I stayed chained to my little brick room and worked on my paper - which is DONE! The final copy is turned in. I’m so happy about that.
On Thursday we took a class field trip to Vallorbe where there is an underground fort and a giant cave. I’m going to write a separate entry on the trip and add pictures, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll have today. It’s 11:00 and Shawn and Beth and I are leaving for Milan at about 1:30. Meantime I’m supposed to be working with my group on finalizing our grant proposal and having lunch. I’ll try to at least get started before we leave.
Oh. I’m not taking my computer to Milan, so will be out of touch until Sunday evening.
Oh. And another thing. Apparently they’re going to try and have a live web cam at our graduation next Friday. It will be on at 12:30 in the afternoon Michigan time. I’ll send more about that later.
Friday July 25th
On Friday morning Beth and Shawn gave their presentation. Nicolas Pron, the Global Administrator of DevInfo, attended along with Kris Oswalt from DevInfo Global Support and Sameer Thapar from their Indian Support branch. They were all wearing suits, which made the presentation seem really important and special. Beth and Shawn did a wonderful job and it was very interesting. I may use the game they created with my 5th and 6th graders this year.
After lunch I met with Aviva to discuss my progress on the research paper. I felt better after talking with her, and she gave me some really good ideas.
We decided to celebrate completing our first week here, so Angie, Beth, Shawn, Apryl, Doug, and I went downtown and had dinner at the Edelweiss Restaurant. It was so much fun. I had raclette for an appetizer, which was a plate with some melted cheese, a potato, a pickle, and some pearl onions. If you order it for a meal you also get beef to eat with the cheese. Then we shared two kinds of fondue. One was mushroom and cheese and the other was tomato. The mushroom and cheese one was a bit strong for my liking, but I loved the tomato one. They brought little potatoes and big baskets of bread to dip in the fondue.
But the great thing about this restaurant was the music. Two men were playing and singing. One played the accordion the whole time and the other switched between various horns, spoons, a saw, and an alpenhorn (more about that later). They also yodeled and played cow bells. And there was a large ceramic bowl that they played by spinning marbles around inside the rim.
Even though the music wasn’t the least bit Polish, it kind of took me back to my childhood because of the accordian and the horns. Finally they played the alpenhorn. The man had to stand at the top of the staircase in order to play it, and the horn reached all the way to the bottom.
After they played a couple of songs they asked if anybody would like to give it a try. Beth shot out of her chair like somebody had lit a fire under her, and Angie and I followed.
After dinner we walked down near the lake. They’re having a festival again this year so there were lots of people and things to see.
Piaget, Cartier, Rolex….. No. I didn’t buy anything there.
Apryl, Shawn, Beth, and Angie
After wandering a bit we took the 1 bus to the 28 bus to a path that leads up to the John Knox center past what I call “The Secret Garden Gate”. Here’s a picture of it from last year.
We are getting good at finding the correct bus (Angie loves maps ), and you can avoid the HHH by taking this route. It was a lovely, relaxing night, and the weather was beautiful. I hope I can hold this memory in my mind for a long, long time.
Wednesday and Thursday - July 23rd and 24th
I haven’t taken any pictures because I’ve pretty much stayed at the John Knox center for the past couple of days. We’ve all been really busy working on our sites and our research papers.
On Wednesday night we had a conference with Juana and Jorge Flores from the Cozumel Parks and Museum Foundation. Juana and Jorge are in Cozumel, and they don’t speak English, so we also had their daughter, Paula, on the call. She is in Florida. The call was very interesting and they were excited by our work so far. The only fly in the ointment was that the call was at midnight our time. We finished our part at about 1:45 in the morning, and I didn’t get to bed until about 2:30. Sharman said that we could sleep in the next morning, but I woke up at 7:30 and figured I might as well get up and go to class.
On Thursday a man named Sameer Thapar was here from India to talk to us about Dev Info, a database system used by the UN. You can get facts about just about anything using their site and easily create tables, graphs, maps, etc. It’s a great tool for schools, and I may us it with my older kids next year. I met with Dr. Dorfman to discuss my paper in the afternoon and then had some free time. I rested for a bit before dinner. We ate outside at the picnic tables and sat chatting until about 10:30. Well, I went in at 10:30. Others stayed out there longer.
For all the work there are still mountains and cowbells and sunshine and cool breezes to make the days pleasant.
Tomorrow we’re going to a restaurant where they yodel and play those long Swiss horns. I’ll take my camera. Hopefully I’ll get some nice pictures this weekend as well.
Missing the Girls
I finally borrowed some tape. NOW it feels more like home.
Cowbells - Monday, July 21st
Classes started this morning and, as usual, my head was spinning by about 9:30. Dr. Cissa Wa Numbe,
Director of UNA-DRC, was here to talk to us about The Congo Cause (Diane and Jodi and Karen’s project). It was very interesting and heartrending to hear stories about malaria and how it is ravaging the Congo. The Congo Cause has raised quite a bit of money to buy mosquito nets, but they still have to make hard decisions about who gets them. Dr. Wa Numbe said that the type of mosquitos that spread malaria only come out at night, which I’d never heard before. The nets are $10.00 apiece. Some people in the Congo live on about $1.00 a day, so a net would be extremely expensive for them.
Later Aviva, Jeff, Gary, and Sharman talked to us about our research papers and answered questions. I’m pretty nervous about that, as I’m not as far along as I had hoped to be by this point.
Lunch was turkey cordon bleu and spaghetti - not too bad. On the way back to the classroom I heard the cowbells. Seeing the mountains in the distance and hearing the cowbells is what I’ll always remember about Geneva. After some more class discussion we were dismissed at about 3:00. I walked to the Migros (local grocery store about 1/2 mile away) and bought bananas, apples, yogurt, bread, tea, and some cereal to keep in my little fridge. Going to the store always means a hike up the dreaded HHH. On the way back I ran into some members of the class and told them I was going to run up that hill on the last day. We’ll see.
When I got back I worked on my paper for awhile and got a bit done. If nothing else I broke the writer’s block I’d been feeling in the morning.
Later in the evening Shawn, Apryl, Beth and I went down to the park with the giant chess set for dinner. Dinner was tasty but really expensive. We just couldn’t wait for the famous chocolate dessert, but got a sad shock. They changed it! And after I explained in great detail what I wanted, I got the wrong thing. The other 3 girls did get a chocolate cake with a liquid center, but there was no little cup of yummy cream sauce and no little cup of vanilla ice cream. I got some other kind of chocolate covered creation, but I was so disappointed that Shawn traded with me. She said it was pretty good, but not as good as the cake. And the cake just wasn’t the same. AND it was TWELVE dollars just for that tiny dessert. We had planned to go back to our “favorite” restaurant several times, but now we probably won’t. Shawn said it’s like dating an old boyfriend - it seems like a good idea at the time, but it just doesn’t work out. We did have a lot of laughs. Oh, Nancy this is for you. We were sitting by a table with extra baskets of bread. All of a sudden a little bird flew in, landed on a basket and started eating the bread! You would have flipped out.
I got home at almost 11 and was really tired as I hadn’t slept much at all the night before. Something is wrong with my leg. I don’t know if I pulled something on the HHH or what, but it was hurting me all night. It probably wasn’t a good idea to have a cup of coffee at 9:00 that night, either. Anyway, last night I read for awhile and then went to bed around midnight.
Didn’t have time to take pictures, but Amy sent me a really cute one of Brenda riding horses at their place last summer.
Brenda
