They Just Fade Away

The story I'm about to tell you isn't the sort of story I generally tell. Most of the encounters I talk about on Facebook are of the humorous or unusual variety; attempts to take snapshots of peculiar encounters. However, the story I'm about to relay is a story of romance, nostalgia, heartbreak and regret. It's a bit messy, because I've tried to preserve this story as it was told to me without grammatical or structural embellishment. I have left out specific names, however.

I spent a large portion of this morning in conversation with a 92-year-old World War II Veteran. He called the station and asked for me by name. He told me he just wanted someone to talk to. I asked why he had asked for me specifically, and he told me that he had heard me on a few programs and that I sounded like, "a pretty nice guy." He had a story he wanted to tell me.

"I was in the army in World War II," he said, "I never did see any action, but I suppose that's a good thing. I would have been ashamed if I hadn't at least been ready to fight, though. I spent most of my time in the military right here in the U.S. After the war I was stationed in Alabama, and while I was there I met a beautiful girl. You know that Blueberry Hill song? The one about the guy who found his thrill on Blueberry Hill?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, that song pretty much describes everything you need to know about what happened between us. It's basically our story. Sometimes I think whoever wrote that song must have been spying on us, but I know that ain't true. Anyway, before too long she was pregnant. Now most fellas would be pretty scared if they found out their girl was pregnant. But I wasn't scared. I was in love with this girl and I was happy. She was happy, too. We were going to get married - we wanted to do it pretty quickly before anybody really knew that she was pregnant. And I thought everything was going to be just great. Unfortunately, I had a nemesis."

"A nemesis?"

"Yeah. The sergeant above me. He was the meanest S.O.B. who ever lived. He hated most everybody, but he especially hated me. He always said I wasn't man enough for the army and he would make me do all the dirty work around the base. Anyway, my captain liked me and wanted to give me a promotion, but the sergeant wouldn't go along with it. So the captain waited until the sergeant was on furlough and then he got me a promotion. When the sergeant found out about that, he was really mad. All this was before me and the girl were going to get married, you understand."

"I see."

"Well, when he found out we were going to get married, he decided he was going to get revenge on me because I got that promotion. He told me that I was being transferred immediately and that I needed to leave the next day. Now, this was on a Tuesday, and I was supposed to get married on Saturday. She had gone out of town to visit her family for the week, and she was supposed to meet me back at the base on Friday. Now, believe it or not, I didn't even know where her family lived and I didn't know how to get in touch with her. I asked the sergeant if he could give her a message and tell her where I'd gone when she got back in town so we could make new arrangements. He grumbled about it and said I was a fool for getting married, but he said he would tell her.

"Anyway, I got transferred to a base in South Carolina and I didn't hear anything from her. I was worried, but back then I didn't have a way to get in contact with her. I was worried sick for a few weeks. Finally I was able to get enough time to drive back to Alabama for a couple of days. After I did some looking around, I discovered that she was still there - but she was married to one of my buddies! I was so upset I didn't even know what to do. I went marching over to see my friend and I was all ready to get into it with him. We almost started fighting, but he explained what happened. He said that the sergeant had told the girl that I had left and that I never wanted to see her again. Then my Buddy explained that he had seen her crying and asked her what was the matter. She told him what she thought I had done to her, and he felt real bad for her. He had a crush on her when I'd been seeing her, so he offered to marry her. She took him up on the offer 'cause she wanted to be married when she had her baby.

"My friend was real nice about it and all - he said that he didn't intend to let her go now that he was married to her, but if I wanted to talk to her alone and explain the situation he wouldn't object. But I said no. I couldn't bear to see again and know that I couldn't have her. I told him that I wouldn't want to do anything to interfere with his marriage and just asked him to tell her that I wished her all the luck in the world.

"Well, after that I was just in agony for a while. I wasn't really religious then - I'm saved now, but I didn't get saved properly until a few years ago - but anyway, I was praying all the time asking God to help me forget. Then I had a stroke and it really messed me up for a while, but it definitely took my mind off the situation. I don't know if that's something that just happened or if that was God answering my prayer in some funny way. But that happened. And after a while I was able to forget all about it. I never did get married, because any time I thought about romance I thought about her, and I didn't figure it would be fair to any other girl to get married when I was still in love with another woman. So I just focused on my work and my hobbies and other things."

There was a long silence.

"I don't know what to say," I said. "That's an incredibly sad story."

"Well, it was tough for a while," he said. "But I thought I had gotten over it. That's actually the reason I wanted to tell somebody - I've been having these dreams."

"What kind of dreams?"

"Dreams about her. Almost every night now. I keep thinking about her and wondering if she's still out there somewhere. She might be gone by now - I'm 92 and she'd be in her late 80's. But I don't know why, after all these years, I've started thinking about her again. Maybe once you get towards the end of life you start thinking about all the things you missed out on. Are you married?"

"Yes," I said.

"Are you happy?"

"Very much so," I said.

"Well, that's good. If I could tell young folks one thing, it would be when you find the love of your life, you should hold onto 'em no matter what. Doesn't matter if it costs you your job or your reputation or anything; none of that stuff really matters."

We talked for a while longer, as he filled me in on some of the other chapters in his life. He talked about how long he had been listening to the radio station, and that tuning for a couple of hours each morning was a part of his daily routine. He said he felt like everyone at the station was a personal friend, even though he hadn't even spoken to most of us. I asked him if I could share his story with others.

"Oh yes, please do," he said. "If it just helps one person out there, then that'll make me happy. That'll make me feel like at least some good came out of it, you know? Because right now it just feels like there's nothing good about it at all."