A TRUE STORY
by: mitch for Mary Kate
It was late on a warm summer afternoon and I was at work in the Communications Center on the Air Base. It was a very routine day. Then, word came for me to go home as soon as possible! That was all, just word to come home as soon as possible. Why? I didn't know why, but I was scared to death. I hopped a cab and rushed home to our little apartment in Ziest. I managed to work myself into a panic while enroute. When the cab stopped, I trotted down the alley that led to where we lived. I could see an ambulance backed up to the front door. As I approached, the ambulance crew were bringing my Kate down the stairs on a litter. My poor darling Mary Kate! Her face was paler than the sheet that covered her. It was made even paler by the wealth of her wavy red mane which was now in a state of disarray. I tried to find out what happened, but my Kate couldn't answer and no one else spoke English. As they were loading Kate onto the ambulance, I could see blood spotting the sheet in the area round her hips. The driver used sign language to have me take a seat in the ambulance and away they went. The emergency lights flashed and the siren wailed. After a short period of time, which seemed to be an eternity, the ambulance backed up to the emergency entrance of the hospital.
As they took Kate inside, I could see that the area where there had been a spot had now grown into a large red splotch! A kind little Indonesian nurse softly grasped me by my arm and walked me to the hospital waiting room. As we entered the waiting room I noticed the large red sun was going down in the western sky. I tried to sit down and wait, but found it impossible to do. I paced back and forth in the waiting room. Each time one of the staff would come by I would try to find out what was happening. Each time I got the same response, that I would be informed as soon as my wife came out of surgery.
Long hours passed. Finally, the kind little nurse that had brought me to the waiting room returned. She said I could see my wife now. As we walked to Kate's room, the nurse told me that my wife would be unconscious for a few hours. I asked her how Kate and our baby were? At this point, the kind little nurse quit smiling. As I stood by the bed side looking down on the pale face of my darling Kate the little nurse informed me that my wife would be alright, but she was sorry to tell me that our little son had been stillborn. "MY GOD, oh lord my God!!!!" I screamed in my mind. The nurse said that due to the circumstances, I could stay as long as I liked and that I could leave and come back as I liked. Then she left the room.
For a long time I stood there by the bed, holding the cold little hand of my poor Kate. I whispered softly into her unhearing ears. After a period of time, how long I don't know, I released her hand and walked out of the hospital into the coolness of the pitch black night. As I walked around the corner of the hospital, I could see that a light fog or mist had moved in to create a different world. I found myself alone, buried in the silence of the night. The street lamps formed little globes of shimmering light. They grew dimmer and dimmer in the distance, until the last glimmer of light was swallowed up by the total darkness of the night. I hurt! Oh lord, how I hurt! I wanted to scream and shout out my rage for the world to hear. But who would care? My Kate and I were foreigners, alone in a foreign land. The pain of my rage made me blind to the world around me.
After what seemed to be hours, I returned to Kate's hospital room. I was there when she regained consciouness. Before Kate had fully regained her senses, she started to ask for her baby. I had to tell her that our baby boy was dead. She cried. I cried. I held her in my arms and we cried together. I was so sad to have lost our little boy, but was thankful to still have my Kate.
After a few days, they discharged Kate from the hospital and I took her back to our apartment. When she first came home, they let me take off from work for a few days. It was so sad. Those rooms that had once been so full of happiness, now seemed so cold and empty. Not long afterward, we were transferred to Germany. We remained there until July of 1957, when we were sent to Weathersfield R.A.F. Station in England. While there, we had one wonderful baby girl in 1958 and another in 1959 - but no more sons.
More than 40 years have passed since little boy lost. We are now retired in California with our daughters and granddaughters close by. Kate never spoke of the son we lost and left in Holland, but I know she has always carried the hurt in her heart. When I let her read this little story about our little boy, she didn't say a word. After she had read it, she just softly laid it face down on the kitchen table and went to another room, without saying one word.
I know it is probably not a manly thing to do, but every now and then I still lie awake at night and shed tears for the little son I never knew. Maybe God in his infinite wisdom will let me join him in the next world. It won't be much longer!
~~~~~finis~~~~~
