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Honeymoon in the VA - date with fate post 69
This entry was posted on 10/26/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
It was a tough era, those late 1970s and early '80s. Heide and I planned to get married after only about eight months of dating. Decisions had to be made. The economy in Wisconsin sucked. Heide finished with her college in Chicago and the company she worked part-time for offered her a job in the better economy of Dallas, Texas. I was bartending and driving school bus.
...., we went to Texas.
But, the caveat was, we had to work it out on a quick time table. Or, other desperate people would simply take our place in the somewhat vibrant Texas economy. We both still talk about the "Reagan Ranges" in Houston - tent cities of blue-collar workers from other beleaguered states, cops, nurses, mechanics, secretaries. We married in November of 1981 and there was only a few days leeway before we would have to head to Texas.
I had made a change to the wedding date - a big request for the male. A couple weeks after Heide announced the date, it dawned on me it was the same day of the month I had entered the Army - that was just too creepy for me at the time - we moved the wedding back a week.
I came up with the idea to head over and down the Mississippi River for a ways. The Wisconsin November weather was better than usual the year of our marriage, but we dared not head to Northern Wisconsin (a popular tourist destination)and tempt bad weather fate.
There was several warm days; we putzed around in Prairie du Chien along the big River in the tri-state area of Wisconsin, Iowa, and MInnesota. There is a picture somewhere of us both standing on grassy highground above the River on a beautiful November day.
After a couple days, we headed back to Madison to have a nice dinner and one last night away before heading back to my little apartment to prepare to leave for the Lone Star State. We found a nice joint operating in an old church building. One of my old classmates and football teammates coincidentally was bartending and we had a nice chat.
Later as we were leaving the restaurant, my cheeks began to puff up a bit - then my fingers. This was not too unusual, since the Army I seemed to be having some mild allergic reactions now and then, and I had had that bee sting episode a couple years prior. But by the time we got on the road to head to our hotel I realized I would need to remove my ring before it was too late.
"I have a bad feeling," I told Heide.
"You better get to a doctor, this won't get any better." Heide had dealt with asthma allergy reactions for her whole life. It was obvious I only had a few more minutes to figure out what to do - we had to move quick or I was a goner.
I had never used the Veterans Hospital since leaving the Army. Something in my pea-brain clicked - we had no insurance. Madison has a well-known Veterans Hospital connected to the University Hospital.
Long story short, I spent the rest of our humble honeymoon in the hospital. We will never know what set off the anaphylactic reaction - it is the nature of the illness. But, the VA took good care of me. Everyone was nice. The post Vietnam myths about the VA being a bad place were not reality this night in question. And, I can't help noting that my new partner in crime was an expert on allergic reactions.
I wonder how I would have fared without the VA's help and Heide's timely knowledge on the subject?
..., we had been out in the middle of nowhere just a day before.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Specialist Joshua Isaac Bunch, 23, Hattiesburg, Mississippi (Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin), was killed Friday, August 6, 2004, when individuals using small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades attacked his vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq. Bunch was assigned to Company B, 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, based out of Fort Hood, Texas. The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs notes that Joshua Bunch was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on December 22, 1980.
The Web site iraq.pigstye.net using information from the Clarion Ledger out of Jackson, Mississippi, states that Joshua Bunch graduated from North Forrest High School, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1999. Bunch had enlisted in the Army in 2001, had served a good portion of his time in Alaska, and was a combat engineer with his unit in Iraq. Specialist Bunch had been in Iraq just five weeks at the time of his death. He became the 15th Mississippian killed in the Iraq war. The Web site article went on to say Joshua loved karate, water-skiing, fishing, snowboarding, and skydiving.
At the time of his death Specialist Joshua Bunch was survived by his adopted father Bill Bunch, his mother Karen Bunch; his sister Sarah Lee, his brother-in-law Sergeant Joe Lee; and, his nephew Joey Lee. Specialist Bunch posthumously received the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He was laid to rest at Highland Cemetery in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Army Specialist Joshua I. Bunch is the 96th military service person that has been identified by Cool Dadio Media as having Wisconsin connections and that has died in Iraq since the Spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
103,158 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented).
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,482 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1814 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
955 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.
32,213 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
592 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.
14,534 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
192 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
36 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.
150 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
22 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org .
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