Mother is second from the left, aunt Mae is in front, aunt Amy in plaid, uncle Edwin is third from the right, uncle Arnie is far right and Grandpa is in the middle, showing his sense of humor by doing a little skip for the camera. He lived with us in SoCal for about eight years before he passed away. 
DH thinks this picture of Arnie was taken at boot-camp because of the ill-fitting uniform, sleeves too short and pants too long.Arnie was the youngest of nine in mother's family and 4 months old when their mother died of pneumonia. He was 44 when he died in a construction accident while using a heavy board to free equipment that was stuck in mud; the board came free, hit him in the head and he died instantly.
When I was back in Minnesota with mother, I heard from family friends how Arnie loved to drive and would save his pennies to buy gas, which then was about eighteen cents a gallon. Sometimes he would only be able to buy a nickel's worth and when the car ran out of gas he and his friends would push it home.
When his enlistment was over, he stayed in California and married a woman originally from Virginia. They never had children and his one big dream was to save up enough money to return to Minnesota and open a resort like his older brother, Edwin. He died the year he had intended to move. His widow moved to Minnesota temporarily but eventually returned to Virginia.
2 comments:
Pretty sad ending for Arnie....to survive a war and get smacked in the head and die some time later??
Very sad, he died too young. I now realize he probably had PTSD but it wasn't talked about then. He would recall painful war memories and then drink too much. Or maybe it was the reverse.
Post a Comment