9th Air Force
1718 ORD
V.E.-Day
Baby Is Born…
My mission in France was winding down, and Sylvia was about to have the baby anytime.
I had helped prepare for the Normandy Invasion.
It was now May 15 1945.
I had been here eighteen months.
France was now a free country as of May 8, 1945.
It was hard to celebrate V.E. Day with Sylvia coming down ill.
She looked so pale.
And frail,
She begged me to stay in France.
But I wasn’t sure that the French would give me a chance.
Being a German descendant,
Didn’t play in my favor,
The French could spot a German a mile away.
It didn’t matter how hard I fought for them to recover their country.
Or the risk I took on a daily basis.
The French were racist.
And not gracious,
Toward any German,
Germans were now considered slaves to their Country.
My life in France had been a time I would remember for the rest of my life.
I had fallen in love.
I had fought in a war.
My heart was tore.
Between my love for her, and my love for my Country,
I loved my wife.
She was now my life.
We were about to become a family.
In her, I saw my past and present and future.
It all seemed like the perfect picture.
I was there with Sylvia at the vineyard when she gave birth.
She was in labor several hours.
I didn’t think it was ever going to come.
And Sylvia was growing weaker.
Then finally after fourteen hours of hard labor, she came.
It was a beautiful baby girl.
She was small.
Almost looked like a preemie.
She looked just like my sister Mary but with Sylvia’s eyes.
I knew right then that this little baby girl.
Could change my world,
I named her Mary Joyce
She was the only thing that made since in my world.
That brought a closure to my time in France.
I just prayed that God would give Sylvia a second chance.
I Heart America 