A tribute to Allie

Last week the Godwins said hello to a new grandson when daughter Jamie gave birth. This week the Godwins are saying goodbye to an old and very loyal family member. Our dog Allie has reached the point where quality of life is at an all time low so we need  to relieve her of her discomfort.

 Allie is a black Labrador retriever who entered our home for the first time in 1994 in my sister-in-law Marylyn’s purse. Allie, whose full name is Allie Oop, made us all happy. Of course she was my husband’s and daughter’s dog, but I was the one who rose night after night and made my bed next to Allie’s pen so she could feel like she wasn’t alone (and stop howling). 

She was their dog but she was my companion day by day. I trained her to walk on a leash though, sometimes I wasn’t sure who was walking whom. I trained her to sit but Billy Wayne trained her to shake. She was a smart, smart dog and training her to do things was incredibly easy.

 When she first moved in with us, the plan was to build a pen for her outside but that never got done and she spent all of her life inside. That is probably why she’s survived this 15 years — 105 if I understand the doggie-years calculations.

Allie stood guard over all of us and every baby or child who spent time with us. Her normal sleeping place was at the foot of Jamie’s bed, and when Jamie went to college, Allie continued to sleep in Jamie’s room,  until I finally began shutting the door to keep her out. Undeterred, Allie simply figured out how to bump the door just under the doorknob to make it slip the latch and open. It took me a long time to figure out how she was doing that.

 The youngsters of the Servati family of Van Anlstyne, where we live, spent a great deal of time at our house during Allie’s life. Allie was a constant companion to Raigan and Kerrigan (the two oldest of four beautiful girls) from their cradle days. It was common place for me to enter the living room and see Raigan watching television from the floor with the top part of her body lying on Allie, as if the dog was a bean-bag chair, and Allie perfectly content. Whenever any of the girls took a nap, Allie was laying next to them in such a way that no one could get to the children unless they went through the loyal Allie Oop.

 When Billy Wayne was found to have cancer, he began a year of arduous interferon therapy. Although he seldom missed work, he was sick many days and just plain drained most days. Allie knew. She frequently left her nightly post in Jamie’s room to lye on the floor next to Bill. During the days, she sat next to Billy’s chair in quiet vigil over him. She knew.

 Our lives have been enriched by knowing Allie. I share this story today as a celebration of the life of a noble friend whom we will miss greatly. It’s a natural cycle for the generous people who share their lives with “man’s best friend” whose only desire is to please us.

 On the Internet in a variety of places, one may find the story of the Rainbow Bridge attributed to an anonymous author. I love this story, and hope it’s appreciated here by others.

Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. 

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. 
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. 
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. 

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. 
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. 

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. 

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. 

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.... 

Author unknown...

Remembering D-Day

We've been pretty busy with our new baby and I feel bad I didn't post anything about the 65th anniversary of D-Day. It's important to me to honor our military men and women and our veterans. But, since I've been busy with family stuff, I'm just going to take a shortcut. I did a story in the Herald Democrat for D-Day and I'm just going to post that story here.

One thing interesting I learned while doing research for this. The D-Day memorial is in Bedford, VA because that small town lost the most soldiers per capita on D-Day than any other town in America. That is the town where my father was born and raised and we still have much family there.

Several of my cousins appear on the list of soldiers from Bedford.

Following is my story:

Sixty-five years ago the Allied forces of World War II fought against insurmountable odds to attack from the sea along 50 miles of shoreline around Normandy, France. Brave forces stood in the gap for freedom against Nazi Germany, liberating untold numbers of everyday people caught in a Nazi chokehold. It was a time that earned today’s grandparents and great-grandparents the title “the greatest generation.” The youngest of those veterans of war are turning 82 this year.

It was June 6, 1944 — D-Day. The size of the event, dubbed Operation Overlord, was unprecedented and remains the largest land, air and sea invasion in history. Planning for the orchestration began in December 1943 and the invasion served to be a turning point in the European campaign against Nazi Germany — a decisive day in history.

The Allied forces were led by Denison native Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. A transcript of Eisenhower’s encouraging speech to the troops before embarking on the landing is found at the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va.. It follows:

“Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

“But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

“I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!

“Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”

More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies had gained a foot-hold in Normandy.

Staff Sgt. Carl W. Fulmer of Tioga was wounded in the D-Day invasion, his son Bill Fulmer of Whitesboro said. Staff Sgt. Fulmer survived WWII until Sept. 27, 1944 in France. During the battle, a machine-gun operator was killed and Staff Sgt. Fulmer stepped up and took over its operation. “He was the main officer with his group; he could have told someone else to do that, but he stepped up himself,” explained Bill Fulmer. It was in this battle that Staff Sgt. Fulmer was killed.

During his military career, he earned two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star. He was one of five brothers who were in the war at the same time. He attended high school in Tioga, attended Indian Creek Church and is buried in the Tioga cemetery. He was a member of the 90th Infantry Division of the 359th Infantry Regiment attached to Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Another Grayson County son was Lt. Comdr.. James Earl Riley, a 1942 graduate of Sherman High School whose activity on D-Day was aboard one of the troop carriers. He was a “boat’s inmate,” reported his wife Wanda from Pensacola, Fla. He took the troops to Utah Beach. She said he never talked much about his experiences in WWII.

“He came back and went to Austin College and then became an officer,” she said. “He retired from the Navy after 28-and-a-half  years.”

Lt. Comdr. Riley also served in the Korean conflict as well as Vietnam. Mary Lueb of Sherman was a classmate of Riley’s and reported that he was a very dear friend. Others Grayson County boys she mentioned who were participants in the D-Day event are Pete Odum, Billy Painter and Billy Ray Fry.

Fry was a private first class for the Army when he departed the Higgins boat that delivered him to Omaha Beach in the first wave of the attack. His son, Judge James Fry of Sherman, said like so many other veterans of WWII, his father didn’t talk much about the experiences.

A member of the 29th Infantry Division, Pfc. Fry was not injured during the D-Day invasion but he was wounded about 10 days later when he was captured by the Germans. He remained a prisoner of war for about nine months before escaping with another POW with the assistance of a former Luftwaffe pilot. Judge Fry remembers that his dad came home in 1945.

“He told me very little about D-Day,” Jim Fry said. “When the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’ came out, I called my dad and asked if he was going to see it. There was a long silence before he said, ‘Son, I spent 50 years trying to forget what happened on that beach, now why would I want to see that.’”

Jim Fry said his dad did eventually see the movie and he reported the scene that was the D-Day landing was pretty realistic. Billy Ray Fry died on the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

From the documentary movie “Voices of D-Day,” Thomas Valence, a rifle sergeant, tells how many of the troops got sick while moving toward the beach. He said the water was rough and choppy.

“As we came down the ramp, we were in water about knee high, and we started to do what we were trained to do — move forward, and then crouch and fire,” Valence said. “One of the problems was we didn’t quite know what to fire at.” He said men on either side of him were being “hit and put out of action so quickly that it became a struggle to stay on one’s feet.”

He reported how he abandoned his equipment that had become heavy and while floundering to get his balance he was shot through his left hand breaking a knuckle and again through the palm of his hand.

“I felt nothing but a little sting at the time, but I was aware that I was shot,” he said. “My rifle jammed, so I picked up a carbine and got off a couple of rounds. We were shooting at something that seemed inconsequential. There was no way I was going to knock out a German concrete emplacement with a .30-caliber rifle.

I was hit again, once in the left thigh, which broke my hip bone, and a couple of times in my pack, and then my chin strap on my helmet was severed by a bullet. I worked my way up onto the beach, and staggered up against a wall, and collapsed there. The bodies of the other guys washed ashore, and I was one live body amongst many of my friends who were dead and, in many cases, blown to pieces.”

More than 150,000 men were moved across the English Channel that day to the shores of France. Six parachute regiments, more than 13,000 men, were flown from nine British airfields in more than 800 planes. More than 300 planes dropped 13,000 bombs over coastal Normandy immediately in advance of the invasion.

By nightfall on June 6, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded, but more than 100,000 had made it ashore, securing French coastal villages and beginning the march across Europe to defeat Hitler. 

Captured Germans were sent to American prisoner-of-war camps at the rate of 30,000 POWs per month from D-Day until December 1944. Thirty-three detention facilities were in Texas alone.

Saturday was June 6. It is a day to remember the valor, fidelity and sacrifice of this country’s “greatest generation.”

6-7-2009 — To My daughter

Today, my sweet girl, you joined a new and noble club. 

I watched you suffer the long pains of child birth, the end of which presented the sweet picture of you as a new mother.

You planned for this moment and this time for nine months only to learn there is much you cannot plan nor predict. Welcome to motherhood.

Today you learned a new love. I saw it when you got your first glimpse of little Langston. Now, you’re beginning to realize how much you can love another person. This, my Himeeta, is only the beginning. Your love will grow exponentially day by day, year by year.

You’re going to experience the joys of watching your little son grow, only to wish at every stage that he will stay just as he is. Do you remember me asking you to “stay just like you are — promise Mommy you’ll never change from the way you are right now.” You always said in your sweet little voice and with a big smile, “Okay, Mommy.”

Every stage of growth of your little boy is going to be like that for you.

Now, my little girl, you have a glimpse of how much you are loved.

more of our little angel

Langston Peck Wayne Roubinek

Our family had a new arrival Sunday.

Langston Peck Wayne Roubinek was born at 1:32 p.m. Sunday.

He landed weighing 7 pounds 10 ounces and he's 20 inches long.