LJ Idol 11 Week 16
Kaitlyn set the tray of coffees on the counter and shook her arms out of her coat, laying it across the back of the kitchen chair.
“Mom? Gramma?”
“In here,” came a muddled call from the back bedroom.
“I have coffee” she called back. “Want some?”
“Bring it with you.”
She entered the bedroom to find her grandmother perched in a rocking chair and her mother putting clothes from the bureau into boxes. It was why she was here today. They were packing up Gramma’s things to move her into the assisted care facility. The dementia had just gotten too bad for her to live on her own any longer.
Kaitlyn handed her mother a coffee, “Gramma, did you want some coffee?”
“No dear, not right now. I’m feeling a little piqued. Don’t need that caffeine adding to it.”
“Mmmm,” her mother said after a sip. “Sweet nectar of the gods. Why don’t you start on the closet Kaity?”
Forty-five minutes later, the contents of the closet sorted into two boxes, one for donation and one to move, Kaitlyn found a small, wood, carved box.
Luckily, Gramma had been quite lucid in their activities so far, instructing both Kaitlyn and her mother regarding what to keep and what to let go. Kaitlyn pulled the small box out of the closet and dusted it off.
“What’s that you’ve got there dear?” Her Grandmother asked.
“Looks like a small, wooden, keepsake box, Gramma.”
“Oh dear! What’s inside”
Kaitlyn opened the box to discover a set of dog tags and pair of baby sized booties. “I didn’t know Papa was in the military,” she said, looking more closely at the dog tags. “Oh, these aren’t Papa’s. Who was Benjamin Price?” She asked, handing the box to her mother.
Her mother looked at the tags and shrugged.
“He was going to be a doctor,” Gramma whispered. “I haven’t seen those in years. Put them away.”
“But, who was he Gramma? And whose baby shoes are these?”
“They were…just put them away. I’m tired. I think I’ll have a lie down for a bit.”
Kaitlyn placed the tags and booties back in the box and set it aside. She and her mother cleared a spot on the bed and helped Gramma lie down.
“We’ll be in the kitchen, working on the dishes, if you need anything Mom.” Her mother pulled a light blanket over Gramma.
“That was odd,” Kaitlyn said to her mother once they were out of the bedroom. “Who do you think Benjamin was?”
“I haven’t the foggiest,” her mother replied. “Obviously, they weren’t Dad’s, and there aren’t any family stories about a Ben or Benjamin. Take the box if you want. Maybe it was a distant cousin or old family friend. Mom doesn’t seem to want to have anything to do with it. She probably won’t remember it in a few weeks anyway.”
A month had almost passed before Kaitlyn thought of the box again. Gramma had been successfully packed up and moved into the assisted living facility. Just in time as well, because her dementia had taken a turn for the worse and she had rarely been lucid the past two weeks. Kaitlyn had paid her a visit and was somewhat surprised when Gramma kept referring to her as “Molly” and told her she had grown up so well. She expected not to be remembered, but the strange name had been a little shocking. When Gramma had said, “Ben would have been so proud”, she immediately thought of the small box with the dog tags.
That afternoon when she got home, Kaitlyn’s first call was to the local recruiter office. It was a Navy office, and she was pretty sure the tags were Army, but you had to start somewhere. Luckily, they provided her with a number to call - who knew this sort of thing happened all the time? - and she was able to get some information.
Benjamin Price, born July 29, 1934, drafted into the army August 4, 1952, shipped out to Korea October 10, 1952, killed in action February 9, 1953.
He had been so young! Tears stung Kaitlyn’s eyes as she wrote down the information. This gave her a place to start and she opened her laptop to see what the internet could provide. She started in the town where her grandmother grew up. There had to be a connection. The county courthouse was where she hit the mother lode. It led to a birth certificate and birthplace which led to a school yearbook. The yearbook proved the connection between Gramma and Benjamin. They were in the same class. Kaitlyn broadened her search to the surrounding counties and state vital records, and was surprised when she found a marriage certificate for Benjamin and “Gertrude” Milne. Gramma was Trudy. Kaitlyn had never known her by any other name, but it fit. She also found a birth certificate for Molly Price, born to Gertrude Price on July 7, 1953, and a death certificate for Molly Price on July 17, 1953. Gramma had been married before Papa and had a daughter who had died? Why had no one ever talked about this?
Kaitlyn called her mother with her research, but her mother and her brother hadn’t known anything about it. Neither Gramma nor Benjamin had any living siblings, so she couldn’t ask them, so she poured through the yearbook, looking for group pictures that might indicate close friends of the couple. She narrowed it down to three, and found Beatrice Caslon. A phone call revealed Beatrice, “Betty”, to be a dear, sweet old woman who was glad to have the company next Saturday to remember what she could about Trudy and Ben.
On Saturday, Kaitlyn grabbed a box of pastries from her favorite bakery and drove two hours to meet Betty.
Pulling up in front of a white frame house with an old fashioned porch, complete with rockers, Kaitlyn rang the bell.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she heard from inside, accompanied by the thump of what must be a walker.
It was a cane, Kaitlyn discovered as Betty appeared, hair neatly twisted on her head, her brightly flowered dress covered with an equally bright sweater.
“You must be Kaitlyn. Come in, come in. Don’t get many visitors these days. The kids like that FaceTime instead. Means they don’t have to wait for me to come answer the door.”
“Yes Ms. Caslon. I’m so glad you agreed to see me. I hope I’m not intruding.”
“Dear, no. It does me some good to see a face from time to time,” Betty smiled. “ I have some tea. Would you like some?”
“I would love some. I brought some pastries. They’re from my favorite spot.”
“Just don’t tell my son. Or my doctor. They’d have my hide. Come along then, come along.”
Katlyn helped pour the tea and they settled in at the old, worn kitchen table.
“You were friends with my grandmother Gertrude, and Benjamin Price, in school?”
“Trudy and Ben. Lord, that was a time ago. Closer friends with Trudy. We were inseparable in grade school. Grew up next door to each other. I had the biggest crush on her brother Danny. He was a looker. Hmm. Of course, Ben was a looker too. Caught Trudy’s eye when we were sophomores. Wasn’t long before they were an item. Totally in love and inseparable themselves.” Betty sipped her tea, lost in reminiscing.
“What happened?” Kaitlyn prodded gently.
“They were made for each other, you know? The cutest couple, and so in love. They were both going to go to State, get their educations, then get married. It was an unusual plan in those days. Women just didn’t go to college. They went to finishing school, if they could afford it, or they got married. But not your grandmother. She was adamant. She wanted to finish college. ‘I’ve got a mind,’ she used to say, ‘and it needs to be used.’”
Kaitlyn laughed. “Yup. Sounds like gramma. But what happened? I know Benjamin..er Ben, went to war.”
“Korea. He was drafted. Danny, Thomas, and my Roger along with him. Trudy was devastated. All she could think of was him going away. Their plans changed. They decided to get married before he was shipped out overseas. She was sure he would go. Turned out she was right. The boys all shipped out to Georgia for basic training at the end of the summer after we graduated. They had a four day leave before they went to Korea and we filled it with weddings. Trudy and Ben, me and Roger. It was glorious, but bittersweet.”
“Ben never made it back,” Kaitlyn stared at her half eaten pastry.
“No. By then, Trudy knew she was pregnant. It nearly broke her. She moved back home so her mama could take care of her, help with the baby once it came. She started to bounce back, pull herself together for the sake of the baby. But, the baby…Molly, I think was her name…she didn’t live long. Something with her heart. I don’t remember. It destroyed the little thread of sanity Trudy had left. She spent almost a year away. No one saw her, and her family didn’t talk to anyone. They were all broken.
“Eventually, Trudy came back. Just appeared one day. By that time, the war had ended. Roger and I had settled in, and he was working at his father’s store. Life went on. Trudy went to college like she had planned. Roger and I settled here and had our family. Trudy and I drifted apart. I always wondered if it was just too hard for her. You know, seeing me and Roger and our family.”
“But, she did have that. Eventually. She and my Papa..er grandfather, James, met each other in 1959. She was a secretary at a publishing firm and he was a junior editor. They married in 1960, and had two kids, my mother, Roberta, and my Uncle Jason. There are six of us grandchildren.”
“I’m glad she found love again. But, why didn’t you ask her about all of this?”
Kaitlyn looked at her tea, “She wouldn’t talk about it. She never did. None of us knew until I found a box with dog tags and baby booties. She has Alzheimer’s disease. We moved her into a facility last month.”
“Oh dear,” Betty sipped her tea. “I’m so sorry to hear that. So many of my old friends have forgotten.”
“I’m glad that you haven’t, Betty. Thank you so much for seeing me today and shedding a little light.”
“You’re quite welcome, dear. Quite welcome. Thank you for allowing me to reminisce,” Betty grabbed Kaitlyn’s hand. “They weren’t all bad memories, you know. We had some mighty fine times, we did. Remember Ben and Trudy that way. A lively, lovely couple.”
“I will,” Kaitlyn gave the elderly women’s hand a squeeze. “Thank you for the tea.”
Betty grabbed her cane and walked Kaitlyn to the door.
“If Trudy has a good day, one where she remembers? You tell her I said hello. You tell her that I think of her often, that I love her, and that I’ll remember. For both of us.”
“I will. I’ll remember too. And I’ll be sure to share the story of Aunt Molly and her daddy with the rest of the family. Thank you again, Betty. Take good care of yourself.”