To Barbara

No Barbara, he did not trick me. (not telling me he was married was inexcusable). I was so in love I was probably momentarily insane. And I was green enough to think that making love was something you could only do if you loved someone. And so I felt he could not have made love with me unless he felt the same. As his excuse he had to face death very soon. The troops that were sent over sailed in big armadas and the German U-boats were waiting for them in the Atlantic. His group was going over to England to build Hospitals for US troops once they were part of the fighting forces. This I Learned from his book in 1998. FDR was getting ready for War before Dec 7. What does that remind you of.

And what did I gain from this experience? From having been a shrinking violet I suddenly became a femme fatale. When I met people who asked me out, I answered, Yes, I would like to go out, but please don't think of me as a date. I am spoken for. That shows how seriously I felt about M. And war time had made all young men wanting to have someone waiting for them when they returned from war. I had as an example a very good friend that I had seen since I moved to the city. He would often call on a Sunday morning and ask if I wanted to go to church with him. And I think I always said yes for he wanted to go to the Catholic Cathedral on 5th Ave. But as his draft number was getting more serious he began asking me to marry him. We had never even held hands walking to church. and there were many examples of this funny game. Some men thought it was a game and were trying to make me forget their unseen rival.

Another thing I gained was Baseball. I became a fanatic. Before tv I listened to radio broadcasts of the Yankee games. When the Dodgers came to California they became MY team. I am now totally involved with the team closest to my hometown.
(even though they are near extinction.) But I consider that insanity as a gift from M.

The last thing M said to me as our taxis were getting ready to go was: If you ever get the chance to go to my home state, be sure to go. It is the best state in the Union.

Now back to a little name dropping. Errol Flynn came to our hospital The Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled. It was some kind of PR for a movie just finished. He was a handsome man but vain. The other name I can drop is Sister Kenny. She was the nurse from Australia who had invented a new treatment for Polio, or Infantile Paralysist, as we called it then. She had fought all the male people who worked with the disease. She gave numerous demonstrations and the old way of treating the horrible sickness was changed.

With Doris Davenport I had found a new adventure that was totally free of charge. I will tell you next time