Tulsa World: Armistice Day and a Western Union telegram

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Armistice Day and a Western Union telegram

CASUALTIES
Harvey Blumenthal: Identical crushing notifications still come to pass.

By HARVEY BLUMENTHAL
Published: 11/11/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 11/11/2009 3:52 AM

There is a poignant scene in the movie, "Saving Private Ryan," beginning with our view of Mother Ryan washing dishes in her Iowa farmhouse. We never see her face, but from behind we watch her pause, looking over her shoulder out the window, and we share her sighting the tan Army staff car winding its way up the long farm road approaching the house.

We sense her fear as she moves uncertainly toward the doorway, and we hear the squeak of the screen door opening as she hesitantly steps out onto the front porch on this warm and sunny June day in Iowa. Mother Ryan wavers as two military officers exit from the car and then, when a priest steps out, she slowly collapses onto the porch.

In that darkened movie theater I softly broke into tears because what happened to Mother Ryan happened to my Aunt Eva. Her only child, Sgt. Albert Boxerman, age 19, was killed in combat near the little French village of Bechy on Nov. 11, Armistice Day, 1944.

I was 6 years old and have no memory of Albert, but in later years I became attentive to the life-long sacrifice and suffering my Aunt Eva and Uncle Sol endured every day for the rest of their lives. When our second son was born, in 1964, we named him for Albert.

Thirty years later I was moved to write a story about Albert, his parents, and how my family was affected by Albert's death. It was published in a St. Louis newspaper in November 1994, exactly 50 years after Albert was killed. The story was titled "Armistice Day."

I soon received letters from several people who remembered Albert and his parents. The most moving letter described the moment my Aunt Eva answered the front door to face a Western Union messenger boy. Like Mother Ryan, Aunt Eva collapsed; she wept uncontrollably and the young boy ran upstairs, seeking help from the upstairs neighbor in the apartment building.

The Western Union boy's frantic knocking was answered by 24-year-old Glenda Gerstein, who was six months pregnant. Glenda had moved in with her parents when her husband was shipped overseas; upon seeing the Western Union messenger she was seized with terror that a telegram bearing news of her husband's death was being served, and Glenda screamed and began to cry hysterically. Her mother rushed to Glenda's side, but was calm enough to hear the messenger's explanation that he was requesting help for Mrs. Boxerman, downstairs.

Fifty years later, 74-year-old M

rs. Gerstein wrote me about this frightening incident which remained so vivid, but had no occasion to be recalled for many years until she read my story. Her penmanship was beautiful as she added that her husband returned safely after the war, and how much happiness the baby girl she delivered 50 years ago had brought them.

Mrs. Gerstein wrote how depressed and withdrawn Eva and Sol became following Albert's death, and how helpless she felt, unsure how to be comforting and supportive. When her husband returned, the young Gerstein family moved into their own home; thereafter, when Glenda returned to the apartment to visit her parents she saw Eva only once ever again.

This horrific encounter with a Western Union messenger played out thousands of times during World War II, and although the heart-breaking news is no longer delivered via Western Union, identical crushing notifications still come to pass onto the descendants of the families of their own Privates Ryan and their Sergeants Boxerman.

Harvey Blumenthal is clinical professor of internal medicine at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine, Tulsa. By HARVEY BLUMENTHAL

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	Report Comment Hobbs, Loveland, Co (11/11/2009 8:35:13 AM) Very powerful,very powerful! Thank you to all veterans and the parents and families who anguish in fear while their loved ones are in harms way. As human beings, my prayer is one day we evolve enough to find peaceful ways to resolve differences.
	Report Comment billy8, Sand Springs (11/11/2009 10:20:18 AM) I have a dream to imagine no war, where we all get along without hatred of those that believe other than what we see as our personal truth. War has never solved any problems, just made more.
	Report Comment Thunder196, Tulsa (11/12/2009 1:29:00 AM) My gratitude to all the families who have had to bear the loss of a loved one. . This brought back memories from the Vietnam War. A funeral pocession of cars that never seemed to end. I still visit the website Vietnam Memorial and visit the loved ones listed there. Their parents are gone as are most of those that were in that pocession of cars. Some days it is so fresh and other times an eternity has passed. No matter how the news comes, there is no easy way to receive it.

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