A look at my birth...

A Birth

The weather in Hattiesburg Mississippi on July 24th 1941 changed suddenly. Sheets of dark blue rain pounded the pavement…the streets were suddenly covered with a flash flood forcing drivers to take alternate routes…
At the stroke of midnight the emergency room at the old Methodist Hospital on Bay Street was deserted save for one lone mother who had arrived in a taxi to give birth to her first child…she sat patiently for several hours before they took her to the delivery room…and at 4:26 AM on the 25th of July a little blond haired blue eyed boy opened his eyes to a new world…a new beginning…she smiled and held him close…
The father only had a few days before he rejoined his unit fighting in Europe…he would not see his new son for nearly 4 years…Peace finally came and he returned home like so many other young men…lost and bewildered…with him he brought the demons of war…they have a name for it now…they call it POST WAR SYNDROM…the little boy remembers his father returning on a Saturday morning…the father stood in the doorway without speaking…he smiled and climbed the stairs…taking the small bedroom at the end of the hall…he closed the door and was not seen for almost 6 months…his wife placed meals on a small table out side of his room…meals that were seldom eaten…
The little boy was almost 4 now and at night he lay in the dark of his room and watched fire-flies flicker in the deep blue of night…his room was next to his fathers and each night he heard him crying…reliving the horrors he brought home with him…each night the demons played with his mind like a child playing a game on the playground…then one day the door opened and he came out…he made his way to the kitchen…smiled and asked for a cup of coffee…they held hand and talked…the little boy watched and saw in his mothers eyes a look of love he had never seen before…the father turned and called the little boy to him…he picked him up and sat him on his lap…combing his fingers through his blond curls…he stared into his beautiful blue eyes and smiled…the little boy closed his eyes and placed his head on his fathers chest…he felt safe now with his mom and dad back together…his father whispered in his ear…Happy Birth day Fred L. Anglin Jr…HAPPY BIRTHDAY…the little boy had turned four…

This is a TRUE story…my story…at 4:26 AM on the 25th of each July…I go to my room and close the door…something I have done for the past 50 years…I close my eyes and thank my mom for giving me life…Some how I know she is listening…