Both survived the war but both suffered bad wounds that ruined the balance of their lives.
My grandfather was wounded by an exploding shell and then got his back broken when the Germans bombed the hospital he was in. But he ultimately wheezed to death from the gassing. His wife had passed from cancer so my 15 year old mother got to nurse him to that horrific death. My mother never got over it completely. My siblings and I were forbidden from bringing up my grandfather because of her trying to nurse him through the years of suffering.
Trudeau mentioned the "rain of bullets" but I also thought of the gas along with the bullets. It robbed me of ever knowing my grandfather. Far more horrific than a little rain - that I'm sure Trump has played golf through.
My great uncle suffered a few wounds including a "GSW to the head" (GSW = gunshot wound). He objected to the senseless slaughter of his fellow soldiers going over the top in the tranches. So they tied him to a wagon wheel barely in range of the Germans and let the Germans take target practice at him for a couple of weeks. When he got home, he dropped his stuff and disappeared into the woods for about 45 years until my Dad finally tracked him down and brought him home for a little while. But he suddenly up and left and went back and died there not too long after.
Not that long ago, the army got in touch. They were trying to better understand PTSD. His case confounded them because normally, when one has PTSD as bad as my great uncle, they blow their brains out. The army wondered why my great uncle hadn't killed himself. The answer was his father had died when he was eight. So he went to work trying to support his mother, younger sister and younger brother. During the war, he continued to send his pay home to his mother. Once home, in the woods, he panned for gold, trapped, etc and continued to send money to his mother. His dedication to support her and her reliance on him is what kept him from ending his life. But he knew his PTSD mental health problems were too severe for him to exist in society and back then, they didn't know anything about his condition like they do today.
When he visited, I got very, very attached to him immediately. We were on the same wavelength. I stuck to him like glue. We didn't speak that much. But there was tremendous serenity in his presence that I've never felt since.
I'm kind of glad Donald Trump bailed out due to rain. The notion of him going through the motions to pay insincere respect to men like this gives me the creeps. It would bother them and therefore, bothers me.
2020 or impeachment can't come too soon.
= new reply since forum marked as read
