A Soldier's Tale

**My grandparents, holding my mom between them*******



Last night I received a call from my mom back in California. My grandfather has decided he really has no interest in being 91 years old without his wife. My grandmother, Agnes Lindgren, passed away a few months ago and without her it's just not worth it. Married after he returned from the Pacific Theatre as top bubble-gunner in a B-17, he started the area's only hardware store. It grew to be so successful that all the area hotels and home builders from L.A. to Palm Springs came to him for their hinges, handles and mail boxes from the late 40's to the present day.
I remember being about twenty and visiting for Christmas. He had pulled out a small black book of local businessmen in Riverside who he had known since after the war. Of the 100 or so men in that book, he was one of only about ten left. I could see that he felt his mortality at that point and I was deeply saddened for him. It was even worse this year when my Grandmother died. They had been married just short (like, a week short) of their 70th anniversary. When my mom took him to place flowers on her grave on their anniversary, she said she could see that his life changed at that instant, and he was ready to go. Do people still love like that anymore? I think that had she lived another ten years, he'd be alive for another ten years and five months.
He hasn't eaten since he was at the graveyard that day, and lost a great deal of weight. He has suffered a mild heart attck, and is in the hospital. In the past three days he has tried to get up and walk home twice, ripping out his catheters in true "tough guy" fashion. Unfortunately, tough-guy fashion sometimes leads to more problems. It caused so much internal bleeding he may not finish out today. On the good side of things, he and the wife were both devoutly religious, and I am convinced that based on faith alone, he will get back the one thing in his life he misses the most. Good luck and Godspeed Jack. Maybe by tonight you two will be together again....