© 2021 Patricia Jean Patten Evans
All rights reserved
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Dutchie Darling . . . Love, Bob |
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| A Love Story © 2021 Patricia Jean Patten Evans All rights reserved |
| Sometime around Jan 12th, Bob was in a battle, where a bomb landed not far from the foxhole he was in. The bomb knocked him unconscious and he lay in his foxhole in the cold and snow for some amount of time. When he was found, he had a bad case of pneumonia and a concussion that had dimmed what little sight he had in his bad eye.
He ends up in the First General Hospital, which is located in Paris. As soon as he is able, he begins to send letters home, reassuring his very pregnant wife that he is ok, that it is only a cold. By this time, he has had no mail from home for weeks, has been in foxholes and battles for over a month, and is sick and exhausted. He sleeps much of the time he is in the hospital, just glad to be in a bed, with clean sheets and heat. The mail delivery had problems during the war. Letters could take weeks to get from one side of the ocean to the other. Bob comments that at best, he figures it will take a month for him to get news of his baby’s birth. Even though he has sent a VMail to both his wife and father, explaining that he has bronchitis (but it was pneumonia) and is fine, the first letter to arrive is one in which he says that the xrays are showing improvement. Jean has no idea what is wrong with him and begins to imagine all sorts of battle injuries. With her very pragmatic sense of reasoning, she decides if he has lost a limb, it would be best if it is a leg. She figures he can still work and be productive with only one leg, but to lose an arm would be more difficult. When she finally gets the letter explaining that he has a 'cold' (pneumonia), she is relieved. Bob is sick before there are antibiotics, so his recovery takes time. To put things in perspective, when Jean has the baby, she will spend two full weeks in the hospital, as compared with today’s less than 24 hours. Bob is in the First General Hospital for acute care from Jan 12 to Feb 3, 1945. On Feb 3,1945, he is transferred to a convalescent home, where he stays to build up his strength for a month, before being transferred to a new unit. Because of his sight, he is declared not fit for combat duty, which annoys him terribly. He hates the idea of being a desk jockey and hopes that at least he will get assigned to something outdoors. For this entire six week period of time, he gets no mail or packages. He knows Jean is due to have the baby in late February or early March. The only address that Jean and the family have for him is the APO address for the 291st Infantry. So all his mail and packages are sent to the front first and then start the path of trying to find him in the hospital, then convalescent home, then his next duty assignment. |