Two photos are obviously early, but most are from 1941, a few are within a few years give or take. I hope no one minds my posting them.
My grandmother would call me every December 7th to remind me that she found out she was pregnant the Friday before and how that delayed my Grandfather from shipping out with the rest of his ROTC class. They wanted him with her while she gave birth. He instead was tasked to work in an industry that was considered critical to the war department. It always ate at him that he didn't get to serve in WWII, but she was happy, because they were soul mates.
Two years ago on December 6th, I was free after work and it was pretty early. I thought about calling my grandmother (which I did at least once a week), but I thought that I was going to talk to her the next day so I'd wait. On the 7th, at lunch, I was headed to the DEFAC to eat, and thought I would call her. So I took out my phone and called. My mother answered and told me that my grandmother was in the hospital. She had walked to the van and told the driver that she would get in on her own. As she got in she fell and the driver who was only a step or two away tried to catch her, but couldn't catch her.
The first three days the doctors said she would be fine, but they kept her drugged up. I was able to talk to her a bit on the 4th day in the hospital. On the 5th day, her heart started failing (years earlier she had her heart valves replaced due to Scarlet Fever). They told us it would be ok, because they didn't expect her heart to fail quickly. They said there would be 3-4 weeks before she passed and she'd be conscious and lucid. I talked to her for about 10 minutes and she told me she was tired and would talk to me the next day.
The next day she wasn't making any sense. She was deteriorating quickly. I tried to get up to see her by renting a car (I had just moved with the military, but didn't have a vehicle at my duty station). The CC I had was being replaced due to a security breech and I only had a debit card. So I went back to base and the next day I had a friend help me rent a car so I could get up to see her. She was lucid and I called, but she was talking to my nieces and nephews. My mom asked me to call in 10 minutes. I was less than 90 minutes away. I called back and literally she hung up the phone with the kids and slipped into a coma. I was praying I could make it before she passed when I was less than 30 minutes from the hospital she went. It was really hard, my last grandparent was gone. I was upset at God for a long time, because He couldn't wait an hour or two to take her to eternity.
Pearl Harbor day was so important to her, it was only fitting that was the day that lead to her death. We buried her just before Christmas.
My grandparents on my mother's side were such patriots. My grandfather on my dad's side was a machinist and when the war broke out he signed up to fight. He fought on the front lines in both Europe and the Pacific. He would often use his skills to repair tanks under fire. He never talked to me about the war except gave me one sentence about the Japanese as a kid I didn't understand it. He talked to my father when he enlisted in Vietnam (He was medically refused for a damaged hand) and my father passed his wisdom on about fighting. My father's Grandfather respected fighting the Germans, but had a very ruthless view of fighting the Japanese.
That is my link to Pearl Harbor Day.
