D-DAY SURVIVOR REUBEN, THE TOUGH HOMBRE

                                             D-DAY SURVIVOR

                  REUBEN, THE TOUGH HOMBRE, OF THE 90TH DIVISION

The first hint that Reuben was a "Tough Hombre" was seen in his role as a survivor from the sinking USS Susan B. Anthony, the day after D- Day, on June 7th, 1944,  during World War II.  The ship on which he rode to the shores of Omaha Beach near Normandy, France,  the USS Susan B. Anthony, won world recognition for having no fatalities when it sank close to the beach.  All 2,689 survived. In fact, The Guinness Book of Records documented it as breaking all kinds of records since it had the largest number rescued without loss of life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Susan_B._Anthony_(AP-72).  Reuben was one who escaped the burning ship and went ashore with no weapons. He was a tough Hombre. Reuben was also a member of the 90th Division in World War II and moreover, it was properly nicknamed, the Division of Tough Hombres.

"T O" was the original name given to the 90th division because it was made up of men from Texas
and Oklahoma. During World War I there were many dangerous missions and consequently many losses. During World War II the reputation of bravery followed the 90th Division so much so, the famous General George Patton nicknamed them "Tough Hombres."


After my father, Reuben Koether, arrived on Omaha Beach, he survived long enough to move inland, but I don't know where he went exactly or how long he remained in France. I don't think it was long. Eventually, he was hit by shrapnel that punctured one lung and shattered it. Later, he was sent to England to a hospital that was set up for the injuries of the June 6th D- Day and the battles that followed. He told us the story about his being triaged and left at the end of a hall in an old British hospital to be treated after the less serious were first treated. He said he waited for days and days before they finally operated on him. The main provisions given to the injured were GI cigarettes. They depressed their appetites and their state of boredom. At last, Reuben was operated on and most of his damaged right lung was removed. After convalescing for months in the hospital, he was then sent home to the United States with one lung intact and only a piece of the other.  He was a tough Hombre.

                                       D-DAY HOSPITAL, THE NETLEY HOSPITAL

The old British hospital, the Netley, was declared a military hospital during World War II. It provided care for the patients connected with the D-Day operations. It has an interesting history but was not a positive memory for Reuben. http://www.qaranc.co.uk/netleyhospital.php However, he persevered because he was a Tough Hombre.

Reuben returned to his home after his long convalescence in the old British hospital. He returned to his work as a civil engineer and was a city manager in Yoakum, Texas for 24 years. During that time, he developed a city park with a swimming pool, golf course, and eventually an airport on the north side of the city, all for his love of Yoakum.

When Reuben was in his 60s he retired from the city to his surveying as a full-time job. Then he died in 1980 from lung cancer. It was probably connected with many years of smoking. The smoking of cigarettes was what he had been taught to exist on while doing his duty in the army.  And the shattered other lung, as a result of war injuries, was no use to him.  For several years before his death, while living with cancer, Reuben kept working in the south Texas heat, surveying and working cattle on his family ranch.  During this time he also applied for 100% VA disability from his military injuries because he had always felt that he deserved more than the VA gave him, which was only partial disability, rather than 100% disability. However, he was never able to convince the Veterans Administration that he was entitled to more disability because of his war experience. The VA always answered that his present health problem with cancer was "not connected" to his wartime injury because it was his other lung that had been ripped apart in France, not his cancerous lung.  In Reuben's heart, he knew it was related to his injury so he applied over and over and each time was rejected.

While dying in the hospital in Victoria, Texas, an attending doctor injected a medication into a hole that they had drilled in his back. When he asked the nurse what they had administered in the hole, she told him it was mustard gas. Of all the years I had known him, I never saw him so upset. He immediately associated the mustard gas with what he knew about the two world wars. And of course, it was terrifying to him. He asked, "Why?" I told him I would find out. That evening I called the doctor at his residence and asked him. He answered, "Don't worry about it. I'm the doctor and I'm in charge." Needless to say, this made me very angry. I had seen enough of Phil Donahue shows which were similar to the later Oprah Winfrey shows that appeared years later on TV. They were famous for exposing the idea that doctors were not gods. And that patients had rights. Reuben seemed to give up after that experience and died about a week later. He had been tough, but cancer won the final battle.

I promised my mother that I would try to help her receive the VA benefits that were rejected. I asked for the paper on which I needed to write a summary of why Reuben's World War II injury and his present cancer were service-related. I learned to write summaries and abstracts at UT. So, I proceeded to write in as few words as I could in the small amount of space provided. I simply stated that had Reuben not lost his one lung while serving his country in the war, he more than likely would have been able to depend upon that lung to serve him when cancer took away the other lung. We had his home doctor sign it and alas it finally was approved. I know that PaPa Reuben was happy and smiled down from Heaven when that occurred.

Reuben was indeed a  Tough Hombre and I'm glad his government finally recognized his valor in fighting the Nazis on the shores of Normandy.

GRANDPARENTS' NIGHTMARE

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g56640-d7677978-Reviews-The_Garden_Company-Schulenburg_Texas.html

                                               
It was a beautiful morning for a drive to a neighboring country town for lunch. We enjoy a
change of pace and dining at an interesting restaurant in Schulenburg. I didn't see any clouds in the sky and the sun shone brightly. I was enjoying our stereo music from our fairly new car as we drove up the highway. When we drove near the first business in the town of our destination, our cell phone suddenly rang.

I answered the ring and suspected a marketing call. We were receiving many of those that
week. At the other end of the call, there was a garbled message I could not understand. I thought I would play along with the marketer from the other end of the world.

"What?" I hollered back into my phone.  He repeated the garbling and I answered, "I can't understand you." For some reason, I thought it could be Sterling, our grandson. Maybe his grandfather had told him we were leaving town. I then said, "Is this Sterling?" The response was again in a garbled voice,  hardly in an understandable voice, "Yes, I've been in a car wreck and the airbag went off and it busted my lip and broke my nose. I can hardly talk."  I said, "Oh my God, are you okay? What happened?"

This had happened to him in Houston, three years before. I started to say, "Again?" But I didn't.

"Well, I can't talk well. You remember my friend, John, who had cancer?  He died and I went to his mother's house to pay my respect. I only had two drinks. Then on the way home, a woman in front of me ran a red light and I ran into her. The police made me take a breathalyzer test and I was only one point over the test line so they jailed me. I now need help getting out of jail."

Our grandson borrowed our extra car the last time he visited us. He left his older car because there was smoke billowing out the tailpipe. We were going to fix it. His grandfather worried all week that something might happen to his nice extra car. I turned to his grandfather and said, "Pull over into that parking lot, your worst fear just happened."

Sterling said, "Do you have a pencil and paper? I need to give you my case number and the name of my court-appointed lawyer. They said I was probably distracted on my cell phone, so they took it away from me. Now here is my case number, case: 64273775 AP. My lawyer's name is Mark Bailey and his number is 339-220-1001." I read back all the information I had written down. Sterling said, "Expect a call from the lawyer and he'll tell you what to do. Please don't tell anyone about this."

We were parked in the first drive we had come up to and it was only a few minutes before our cell phone rang.  Grandfather behind the wheel decided he better talk now. "Yes, this is Sterling's grandfather, what happened?"

The caller identified himself as Sterling's court-appointed lawyer, Mark Bailey, and said Sterling is in a lot of trouble.  He said Sterling failed the breathalyzer test and the car he hit broad-sided had a pregnant woman driver. This is really serious, the lawyer told him and that he had worked hard to scale down the cost to bail him out. They took Sterling's phone because they believed he was using it at the time of the wreck.

 Sterling's grandfather said, "That much?'

"Yes, and I worked hard to get it reduced since it was his first drunk driving offense." said the lawyer.

When he hung up I asked, "What does he want?'
     
"I knew it, I knew it. It's going to cost us a lot of money before this is over. He said I should get a cashier's check for $9500. And place it in a 9x15 padded envelope. And he would call us back in a short time and tell us what to do and where to mail it."

I could see the grandfather was visibly shaken and that one of us had to stay calm and think logically. I told myself and then him that this doesn't sound right. I needed to call son, Bryan, who was on the way to Houston.

The grandfather said, "They told us not to tell anyone."

" I don't care. No one should tell me what I can do. It's our grandson."

After relaying the story to my son in an almost hysterical voice while he was trying to find a parking place in a lot at a lawyers' office in Houston, he called me back on his cell phone. He said this had happened to a friend of his in Austin and it cost his family much money and his friend spent time in prison.

I thought, "Oh great, this is getting really bad."  Next, I thought I needed some reassurance that this story was real. I was obviously not getting anywhere, by then.  I picked up my cell phone and said, "I'm calling Sterling on his cell."

The grand-father said, "Remember, they said he didn't have his phone."

I answered that this sounded fishy to me. I knew it was a gamble, but we could maybe find out for sure what's going on. Sometimes Sterling doesn't pick up his phone because he works late hours and likes to sleep late.

I dialed his number and after two short rings, a voice answered. "Sterling, are you okay? Where are you?" I asked.

 "Nana?  Yes, I'm okay and I'm home. What's wrong?"

I proceeded to tell him what had happened. He started laughing and laughing. And said, "Nana, you got scammed."

"Oh, I'm so thankful you are okay and we don't have to empty our bank account. Here, talk to your grandfather so he knows you are okay." I next called my son back and told him what I found out. He said he started to tell me to leave him in jail because that was too much money.

 Next, we pulled up to The Garden Company-Schulenburg, Texas. We went in and ordered the day's special: wonderful snapper fish with shrimp sauce, wild rice, and green beans.  It was fabulous and a nice way to celebrate our escape from being scammed.

BIG LESSON: WOMEN, TRUST YOUR INTUITION. AND BEWARE OF SCAMS.

 

I SAW THEM TOGETHER IN BED

He's good looking, I know. But there are no excuses for this. He had just told me he was trying to get rid of her kind that morning. But there they were, he almost asleep for his afternoon nap and she curled up on the same pillow next to him. She was a brunette or redhead. I could not tell which. She looked comfortably sleeping and he lay there almost asleep with a smile on his face, as the afternoon sun shone brightly through the window. I couldn't believe I saw them together in bed, in broad daylight.

I wanted to kill her. But how? I had no weapon that was handy and I had to act fast. As he opened his eyes, he said, "Come join me for a nap." I thought to myself that I would not risk this kind of needless pain.

I knew we had to kill her, but it had to be done very quickly before she made an attempt to escape. I said, "Now don't move too fast. But you have to do it slowly and not make any noise. We don't want to startle her so that she might flee and disappear. She might prey upon some other innocent victim."

He did as I instructed. He slowly rose from the bed and then looked down as he gradually picked up the pillow, as she lay in an embryo position.

"How are you going to kill her?" I asked.

"Very carefully," he answered, as he grabbed his gimmy hat, sitting on a chair, next to the bed. He then proceeded to smash her to bits with his fingers, wrapped around the inside of his cap.

"I sprayed all around the house this morning. I can't believe I chased her inside where she decided to take a nap beside me on my pillow."

I answered, "As allergic as you seemed to be when the last scorpion bit you on the hand, I would hate to see the damage this scorpion would have done to your face."

"Thanks for alerting me."

A Deja vu Sighting At An Historical Church in the Country

                       A Deja vu Sighting At An Historical Church in the Country



We had an interesting drive through the country today. We had an unplanned visit to a couple of painted churches in central Texas, built in the nineteenth century. One was at High Hill, outside of Schulenburg, Texas. The church from the outside "does not clue you in on what is in the inside". http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/st-marys-church-high-hill-schulenburg?select=rg3nPfMmnBl1ddqyTqQZ_A It has hand painted art all over the walls and ceiling, hence, to which all the painted churches in Fayette county are referred. The alter, cabinets, and wood work are beautifully carved and constructed at the St. Mary's Church at High Hill. http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/HighHillTexas/High-Hill-Texas-St-Marys-Catholic-Church.htm

The churches were created by 19th century immigrants from Austria and Germany. But the art is said to have been painted by itinerant artists later around the turn of the century, who advertised in the San Antonio paper.  The other beautifully painted church, St. Mary of the Assumption, we visited is at Praha, outside of Flatonia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Church_of_the_Assumption_(Praha,_Texas)

 It was Deja vu when I spotted a rock grotto, https://www.tripadvisor.co.il/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g56640-d2460464-i141062937-Painted_Churches_Tour-Schulenburg_Texas.html,  https://www.tripadvisor.co.il/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g56640-on the grounds, outside the Praha church.  St. Mary of  the Assumption's rock grotto that's on the left of the church in front, is a replica of one I sketched out on my canvass, to paint next. The grotto, I'm going to paint is to be next to the sketch of the oldest church in U.S.,San Miguel. It's in Taos, New Mexico, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecKXVHwkFJs The grotto outside the painted church is positioned in the same place, as the one in my sketch. I was just trying to fill in some space(an artist privilege) on my canvass. It was spooky because I had never seen it or planned it that way. I use the image of San Miguel church to fit my Hispanic southwest themes. The Taos church will serve as a background to other images in my painting. I am most attracted to the Spanish Colonial history and its art.

 Now, I'm beginning to think I better paint another picture of the church at Praha to have an authentic image of the Grotto and what I saw today. I don't want to get into trouble with any ghosts who may have been hanging around the Grottos that I saw today.  And I'm looking forward to visiting the other painted churches in Fayette County on other day trips. http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/PaintedChurchesTour.htm

Yes, it was a beautiful day.

MANY CHRISTMAS EVES AGO

Many Christmas Eves ago, I remember going to the Koether farm for presents, food, and a fireworks display. My what a celebration it was. This afternoon as I was mixing my easy microwave fudge recipe, I thought of all the goodies Aunt Willie Mae and Grandma cooked for us. It was a mammoth table full of all kinds of candies, cakes, sandwiches, dips, potato salad, and seasonal meats. They must have had to start getting ready weeks in advance. Their fudge was not instant like mine. And their divinity was divine. The Koether family was most generous with numerous gifts for all their children and grandchildren. When the night became dark, we gathered outside to watch the outburst of color from the tons of fireworks our uncles, Bill, and El set off to the excitement of us all. Afterward, we returned to our home to collapse in bed with visions of sugar plums dancing through our heads and tummies. Oh, what Christmas Eves those were.

THE PRAYER SERVICE IN THE MALL PARKING LOT

I enjoy people watching. It's part of my sociology training. Especially interesting is watching culturally different people in the San Marcos Outlet Mall. During this time of year I've seen many Mexican Nationals shopping and interacting with their families. Today, I waited in the car while my husband ran in a shop to exchange a purchase he made before Christmas. I looked around the parking lot and saw two cars drive up close to where we parked. One man jumped out of a car and directed the driver of the other to back up several feet so the two cars had about eight feet between the hoods of their cars. They were facing each other. This small amount space provided an isolated location protected from traffic. It's where I observed their interaction.

The four men were similar in age, dress, and bearded dark faces. Their stocking caps fit closely on their heads. Three of them wore rubber like shoes without socks and one wore socks with his shoes. They were laughing and seemed to have an objective,  parking where they did. First, they pulled out 4 rugs, around 2'x4' in size. The style was not your typical type or the Mexican colorful design I have in my house. I decided the rugs were  more of an Asian influence. With my guessing, I began to suspect they were definitely not people I was used to seeing at the Mall interacting in this manner.

 One of the men picked up a bottle of water and poured it on his hands and arms. He repeated this action several times. Then he picked up his stocking feet and poured water on them  and rubbed them.  The other men who were without stockings poured the bottled water on their bare feet. They repeated this several times, as well. My husband returned to the car and I told him to drive around the cars so I could watch what they were doing. Of course he was not going to have anything to do with my being so nosy. But as we began to drive away, I looked over to the four men who were kneeling between the two cars on their individual rugs. In unison, they kneeled over and touched their heads to the ground at exactly the same time. At this point I realized I was probably observing Muslim men praying together.

This was a different experience for me to observe, since I live in a small south central Texas town and never have seen a  ritual, such as this.  But this is central Texas which has the fastest growing population in the country, according to Demographers and Census people. The site I saw demonstrates how different cultures are emerging and becoming more visible in our state.    

I researched some of the actions I observed of the Muslim interactions. First of all I found that today, January 3rd, 2015 is the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. And although there are different ways to demonstrate the followers' veneration of their Prophet,  prayer is important.  Moreover, the washing of parts of the body before prayers is a form of cleansing and making followers more worthy. This explained the washing of the men's bodies. .http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/articles/92744/obligatory-and-optional-aspects-of-ablution

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to see those of another culture perform a most important ritual on the Prophet's birthday. Now I understand better what the Muslims were doing. And it was so remarkable that they would exhibit their devotion in a public parking lot for anyone to see.

SHE SAVED ANOTHER LIFE

She is a quiet, composed, beautiful lady. She is intelligent, bright and doesn't miss anything that crosses her path. She speaks softly and loves deeply. Her husband is the love of her life and her children and grandchildren are the center of her universe. Her accomplishments in her career speak for themselves. She seems to always stretch her self and go beyond what common mortals  do. She taught herself computer programs and mathematical problems that were necessary in her line of work. And carried on the engineering goals, from her Father Reuben's genes and daily influence. She has been handsomely rewarded for the work ethic she diligently pursued and was demonstrated  by her role model, grandmother Nell,  since the age of fourteen,  when she worked in our grandmother's shop. My baby sister, Laurie,  recently retired from her career. She wanted to spend more time with her husband and family, but she didn't retire from her spirit of giving and her knack for observing what goes on around her.


A few years ago, my sister saved her husband's life when he had a massive heart attack at  home. She
performed CPR on him and later the EMS took him to the hospital and he recovered after he was packed in ice and brought out of an induced coma. https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2134402539885653021#editor/target=post;postID=8462564081228885629;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=31;src=postname


Laurie and I were visiting about Christmas the other day and before we hung up our phones, she said, "I want to tell you what happened yesterday when Kenny and I were at Dillard's shopping for Christmas."

She continued, "A small older lady started screaming, 'Please help me'. As Kenny and I were walking toward her we saw a man lying on the floor with his eyes closed. People were standing around staring and not making any moves to aid the lady in distress. I screamed,  Call 911. Hurray." Laurie continued and said the lady was pushing on her husband's chest. But it didn't seem correct so Laurie gently pushed the lady's hand away and took over until the EMS arrived. She said it was interesting how the man's eyes began to open and then rolled around in his head when he began to take a breath.
She said she remembered how she compressed her husband's chest a few years before.

Laurie said the man began to sit up and his wife was going to help him stand to walk away. Laurie told them not to move and stay put until the EMS arrived to check him out. Shortly, they did arrive and she and Kenny bid their ado and began to leave the scene. She said the woman didn't ask her for her name or anything. So she didn't know how things turned out. The woman had revealed that her husband had been having trouble with high blood pressure recently. When she arrived home and told her son what happened he said, "Mother, do you realize you saved another life?"

Do you know you could save a life as she did? Look at this video and you can see, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSUC0wTFAjU>

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSUC0wTFAjU> Please be observant of what goes on around you. At least call 911 and attempt to do what Laurie did. You might give someone a new life in this New Year. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES.