It’s Veteran’s Day, and we all think about the Veterans in our life today.
I’ve had several, and have posted about a few in the past; my Dad, and my Uncle Chuck. Both served their country well in WW II, and both paid a price for it. Daddy suffered from PTSD for years, and Uncle Chuck was crazy as a bed bug odd for the rest of his life!
But, today, I’d like to remember Grandpa. Not MY grandpa, but my Mother-in-law’s dad, Herb Woodard.
Herb was born in 1909, he married a woman he really loved, treated her like a queen, spoiled her rotten, and put UP with her selfish behavior from 1933 until her death in 1995.
By the time I was 16, all my grandparents were gone. My Mother’s dad died when I was 15 months old, so there was no connection for me to remember. My grandmothers died two days apart in 1966, one on Wednesday and one Friday of that same week, while we were at the Funeral Home Visitation for the first one no less!
Grandpa Brads died in January of 1968. I remember it clearly, as it was just after the first Christmas we didn’t go home to Virginia since the Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia fell that November, and Daddy hadn’t mapped out a new route back home. 46 people lost their lives when that bridge fell. The new bridge wasn’t completed until late in 1968.
He found one pretty quickly in January.
So, when I married in 1977, it was a new experience for me to have grandparents again. The in-laws came with six grandparents, including a set of Great-Grandparents who were in their 90s.
I was closer to Herb over the years, mainly because he was around more. The sun rose and set on my wife in his eyes. Grandma was worse about it, referring to my wife and her sisters as “Diane and the girls.” They had names, but you might not catch them if you talked to Grandma. But that’s a story for another post!
Herb was the baby of his family. His Dad, Andrew left the family when Herb was a youngster, as he would say, moved to another town, six miles away, and married another woman. He started a new family there.
Herb didn’t see his dad much, and in all the years I knew Grandpa, he spoke of him only once.
In 1933, he married Grandma (Eula), a spoiled, but loving woman, and he doted on her. When he knew that Uncle Sam was about to call him UP, he joined the US Navy and became a CB.
The SeaBees are the Construction Battalion of the US Navy. The boys go back to WW II, it was a new thing then, and Grandpa was proud to be a part of it. They built bases, bulldozed and paved roadways and airstrips, worked in a vast variety of war theaters.
Grandpa’s was in Alaska.
He often talked of Alaska and how he’d like to have gone back. He never made it there, he spent too much time taking care of everyone else.
He doted on his granddaughters, cared for his sister-in-law through her final years, cared for his wife through the last stages of Alzheimer’s, going to the Rest Home and sitting with her every day, even though she had no idea he was there. When she died, he looked at me and said, “Well, I’ve lost my job.”
He treated me like gold. In all the years I knew him I only heard him say an unkind word about a very few people, you really had to be a rat for Grandpa to comment.
Everyone loved Grandpa; he was an unassuming man whom every one respected; after very little thought, it’s easy to see why.
He was just a good guy.
Herb died 12 years ago today, on Veteran’s Day 1999.
It was only fitting that he got to ‘muster out’ on that day!
Thanks to all the SeaBees and other Service men and women who have served in wars past. And thanks to the ones who are serving our country today!
Hard candy…
Gum drops…
Chocolate Covered Cherries…
And, Christmas Petit Fours!
But, after a great deal of searching and the luck of getting an unsolicited catalog in the mail, I’ve found the wonderful confections I loved as a kid and my dentist appreciated!
