THE REST OF THE STORY

After Mom came, my parents spent a second honeymoon in Paris. Their reunion was joyous. They moved into the 300-year-old house, but ate many of their meals with Madame Salm at the inn with other American army families. They moved a bed and Mike's crib into the kitchen to keep warm because the kitchen had an oil stove. There was no central heat. "Mike slept in his snowsuit between us the first night. It was that cold," Mom told me.

While Dad was at Captieux, Mom took long walks along the promenade and went to the market in the square. Her favorite friend was a vegetable farmer, Monsieur Garliss. He had a turtle that Mike loved. Garliss would take Mike behind his store and call for Fifi and the turtle would come. Mom was in her glory with all the beautiful flowers sold in the market.

I was in this picture!!

Neither of my parents were big wine drinkers, but the water wasn't safe so they drank more wine. When in France....  Mike was given evaporated milk diluted with chlorinated water. They bought bread and meat, fresh every day, at one of the market stalls.

When the Tour de France came through Bazas, as it still does to this day, they went to the highway to stand and watch the cyclists.

Life in Bazas was rich. They never felt that the "lacks" in their life were significant. Bed in the kitchen? So what? No indoor toilet? No problem. They were so content.

When the car arrived from the US, they felt their time there really took on a new level of excitement. They put 23,000 miles on the Chevy by taking trips all over Europe on weekends. They made up their own itinerary and just took off. They saw Spain and Italy and Netherlands. They spent time in many locations in France. They took in England and Germany and Switzerland. In the wintertime, they'd go to the ocean-side city of Biarritz and get a motel "so we could take a hot bath."

Traveling all over Europe with a toddler was easy-breezy in the '50's. No seat belts. "We'd plunk him in the back seat with a pile of books and a few bananas and we never heard a peep out of him." When they stopped for the night, they would have Mike run up and down the motel halls. He was speaking French quite fluently before they left just by playing with other children.

I wrote a book about (from interviews with them) their years in Bazas and I cherish knowing the details about this time they spent exploring another continent. Mom wrote details from every trip to her parents and Dad's and most of those letters still remain.

They stayed in touch with Madame Salm. She sent a dress and bonnet when I was born. I don't know if they stayed close to the Garliss family.

"I'd go back to Bazas tomorrow," Mom told me. "I don't know if there was ever another time in our lives that we were more carefree and we were surrounded by all that awesomeness of Europe."

Were the 2 years in Europe the highlight of their married life?

"Other than the joy of our children, it was. Absolutely," Mom confirmed. Dad echoed, "It was such a wonderful experience. I would do it all over again in a minute."

When I wrote the story of their life in France, I learned the "rest of the story," but I had never read these letters to Mom that Dad wrote to her. It filled in those missing months of Dad's life when they were apart.

I come away from all these letters from Dad knowing that my parents had an incredible love for each other. They lived a love story. I feel so lucky to have been born into that love and raised inside of their nurturing arms. 

Thanks, Dad, for leaving these letters for us. The journey with you through them has been a joy.

LAST LETTER

I am finished with 800 pages of letters. 400 pages, 2-sided. It has been a great journey with my dad, full of his angst and delight and worry and adventuresome spirit and longing. I have brought so very little to these little installments, so much less than what I have absorbed through his words. I just had to leave out so many wonderful details and anecdotes due to time and space. But I have loved reading his every long-hand stroke. And it has been fun to share the trip through the letters with my blog readers.

These last week of letters are filled with many housekeeping details about the trip. It takes away from the richer anecdotes about his work and life. I am sad to see this journey ending in such a mundane way, but all those travel details just means that Dad is getting closer to having his family with him again.

Dad asks Mom to send a trunk full of civilian clothes before she embarks. Why he didn’t bring them when he shipped over is beyond me. “At the moment, I am wearing red sox, grey flannels and a blue wool shirt and I feel like a million bucks. You can’t imagine how tired you get of army uniforms.”

I smile when Dad tells Mom about all the letters he gets every day…..from his parents, her parents, her aunts, his grandmother, his dad’s associates, friends from Jamestown (where they lived), and his little brother Bobby. Bobby came along 18 years after Dad. I’ve never asked Uncle Bob if he was a “bonus baby” or planned, but their middle brother was born when my dad was 10 so Grampa and Grama had some wide gaps in child rearing. Dad had already left for college at UND when his baby brother was born but they became close. Bobby, age 9 or 10, would write Dad in France these long one-full-page letters with details about life back at the home place and it delighted him.

“I had another letter from Bobby today. He sure writes good letters. He wants a letter just to himself so I’ll have to write to him.” And a week later, “Got a couple more letters from Bobby again. He sure is good about writing and writes the best letters. I really enjoy them.” Dad would be crushed if he knew that his brother would, 60-years later, be fighting cancer.

He is talking with his buddy Bob about how they would love to begin a small medical practice together when they return to North Dakota. Problem was Dad was already hired at Jamestown Clinic and they were paying a portion of his salary as an incentive for him to return there, so the idea lost steam.

The last letter is dated Saturday JANUARY 28,1952, and under the date he writes, 16 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS. Seeing my mom and brother was a Christmas morning present that he couldn’t wait to open in February! He ends with this:

Darling,

I am getting so antsy I can hardly wait for you to get here. I am in a new room at the Hotel Lion D’or and am very happy about it. Madame Salm moved me into Hans Stibold’s room. I’m alone now and have the nicest room in the hotel….new bed and all. Am very happy to be alone. Storment and I were incompatible (as roommates). Can now go to bed and get up when I like.

Gee, Darling, I’m happy tonight. You seem so close. I’m so anxious I don’t sleep well anymore. Meeting you and Mike will be as wonderful, or more so, than when we were married. Sure seems like ages since I left you weeping at the Fargo airport. Sometimes I get such an anxious feeling, I think I’ll bust before you get here. Hope our boy makes the trip OK. Hang on to him tight, honey.

Not much in this letter, darling, except that I sure love you with all my heart and it won’t be long now. Kiss for Mike.

All my love, Ed

One last post to come: The rest of the story

DENVER HAS SPOKEN

For those of you who have wondered about the results of my Denver doctor's consult with me, I am relieved to tell you things are not dire. The new drug (his own) is not FDA approved and that is where my angst had its genesis. How long could I wait for this drug if mine is not working? Dr. K told me that April 29 is the federally mandated day that the FDA has to make a ruling. It could, by some miracle, become approved before that, but it HAS to be ruled on in 2 months. He sees no reason it won't go through. I would have access to it as soon as 2 weeks after it starts being distributed.

He wants me to stay on the chemo that is no longer effective, because it could be slowing any progression in the tumors until the new chemo is out. He was not too concerned about all the fluid in my lung cavity. My cancerous lung may be trapped (meaning, it won't descend into the cavity even after removing the fluid) so if I am not symptomatic, he wants me just to hold off on that. I guess it has good proteins along with the cancer cells! Go figure.
This is what they tapped out of me 2 weeks ago (a little over a quart). Hard to believe I didn't slosh when I walked!!

So the news is overall positive and I am not out of options, which I worried about. Looks like I can plan my summer! I am so blessed to have my Denver doctor who is such an expert in the type of cancer that I have that he is creating the chemo to combat it!!

Thank you for praying. Continue to pray that the FDA might come through earlier than April 29.

I continue to have faith in total healing someday. The drugs can't cure me, but God still can.

TIRED OF BEING ALONE

INSTALLMENT 4


Dad is still in Nuremberg with friend Bob. He is becoming a shopper. Buying things for their future home back home. Hummels, musical beer steins; checking out Rosenthal and Limoges china sets, which they probably could never have afforded in the US. He tells Mom that they are going to leave Europe with some nice things, even if they don’t save a penny. I know that they also bought their parents many beautiful things in Europe.

I was amazed that the folks had already chosen the blueprint for the dream house they were going to build someday. Dad asks Mom to bring the specs with her so they can plan. The house was built when I was 6.

“Honey, did you receive the silk scarf and the French perfume I sent you?” and “Bring some fancy clothes with you for parties. When you get here, I will buy you a Paris creation and you’ll knock everyone’s eyes out.” Ah, he was so romantic!!

I am sad that Dad gets down a lot. He uses the word morose to describe himself. Tells Mom that he “will feel like living again after you and Mike get here. His daddy will have to give him lots of loving when he gets here----and Mama too!” I share his loneliness as I read.

Their separation during these many months, I am presuming, set the tone for the rest of their 64 years together. They were rarely apart for more than a week, when Mom would go to one of our homes when we had babies or when Dad took one of the boys on a fishing trip. They knew separation and never wanted it again. "Believe me, we're staying together every day possible from now on. We're just too close to be apart."

Dad is already checking the train schedule for Cherbourg, where Mom is going to disembark, so that he has all their ducks in a row. He is concerned about buying a baby bed and asks Madame Salm to price them out for him. She actually offers to buy one for them to use. He must have gotten the "shopping itch" out of his system during his years in the Army, because the only thing my dad liked shopping for, to my memory, was cars and cameras. 

I am high-fiving Dad for finally calling the Colonel in LaRochelle on the QT and asked him what was up with this major. When he heard the story, he whistled and almost blew his top. The Colonel guaranteed Dad that the unscrupulous major would be out of Dad's camp in 2 weeks. "My conscience tells me I did the right thing by reporting him, but I hope I don't get into a jam or have repercussions over it."

I am stoked as he tells me about the new hospital construction coming along well at Captieux and it promises to be one of the best medical facilities in the European theatre. Then, the surprise to me....he tells Mom that he heard a new OB/GYN center is being built in LaRochelle. "Maybe we'll have Catherine Ann here after all."

CATHERINE ANN? I was supposed to be a Catherine? Not that I dislike the name. I am just not a Catherine. I'm glad they re-thought the name options before I arrived!!

We're about 3 weeks away---

SPEED BUMP

I am at a crossroads. My chemo has stopped working. My scans last week yielded some good news and some not so good. My 4 remaining brain tumors are now 3. That's good. But I have 2 lung tumors that are growing and 3 new ones. I have accommodated to the chemo. A fourth generation drug which targets my cancer is developed but not yet FDA approved and could be months before it is. Unless God intervenes.

I will be consulting with my Denver doctor about my options. If the drug doesn't become available, I will be on a descending path of growing cancer. I don't know that there are any further options for me. 

I will know more after I talk to Dr. K in Denver.

My prayer request to any of my blog-followers who might want another cause to put on their prayer list: A miraculous rapid FDA approval of the drug I need.

How am I doing? I dropped my basket of faith for a few days and had to battle fear. But we went to Mpls to see the kids this weekend and I was able to still my soul enough to start gathering all the pieces of faith that I had dropped. I may be blindsided again this week, but I am trying to remain strong and positive.