A Forgotten Man

The lingering mournful notes of taps sounded that day in 1950, when an unsung hero of WW1, a man who had fought with Sgt. York in the action that had thrilled a nation, was laid to rest in Pennsylvania. An invalid from wounds he recieved in a subsequent battle, George H. BosIey had been a member of Company G, 328th Infantry the day Sgt. York used a machine gun to pick off Germans who were annihilating his company and then marched 132 prisoners back to American lines, earning the Pall Mall, Tennessee man the adulation of a nation, a Congressional Medal of Honor, some financial reward and, in 1941, a motion picture about his life.

Bosley always said that Alvin C. York earned all he ever got through his coolness and heroism in that 'No Mans Land battle,' but he never stood for a movement in the limelight, himself. All he would ever say was, "I was there, I saw it happen." But sadly, as fate would have it, on Oct. 14, 1918, six days after Sgt. York's heroic deed, shrapnel pierced Bosley's helmet, taking out his left eye and part of his head, and making him an invalid for the rest of his life. He woke up in an Army hospital five weeks later. By the time he was shipped home, heroes were plentiful, so he quietly took up life in the small Pennsylvania town of West Newton and that day with Sgt. York became just a memory. Unable to work steadily, a small pension helped him rear his family.

After Warner Brothers decided to film it's Sgt. York movie, efforts were made to find all of the men who had been with the heroic sharpshooter in the fight against the enemy. They found all but one - George Bosley. Yet, in one of the scenes in the movie, a prisoner throws a hand grenade that wounds one of Sgt. York's companions. That companion was Bosley. The grenade wounded him on the nose and cheek. For his heroism, this forgotten man of a great incident of American battle history was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre and a Purple Heart.

Rescued By An Angel

At age 9, myself and all of my siblings, plus two cousins and a childhood friend, eight of us total, contracted red german measles, or Rubella. We were all hospitalized for about a week, at which time everyone except my brother, Ronnie, and I had successfully gotten rid of the Rubella and were able to go home. We were kept longer because just as the Rubella was going away, we contracted Encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain most commonly caused by a viral infection. One of the problems Encephalitis can cause is seizures, which we both experienced a lot of, occasionally at the same exact moment there in the hospital room that we shared. When we were not alert and having seizures, we were unconscious and that went on for several days. Encephalitis, while relatively rare, can be life-threatening and we were at that level. I can remember waking up and seeing most of my relatives had gathered in our room. I was told later that we were so sick our family did not know what to expect. One relative was my grandfather's niece. We called her, "Tootsie," but her real name was Marie. I would later learn that, at the bequest of my grandfather, she came and stayed in our room for days, turning us every twenty minutes or so as we lay in a sleep, and constantly wiping away the perspiration from our bodies. It wasn't long after she came and began doing those things that we were able to overcome that illness. I always credited our survival to the extra special love and care Tootsie gave my brother and I, but I also suspect she did her share of talking to the Lord on our behalf. I would grow up feeling closer to Tootsie because of what she had done. To me, she was my angel. Whenever I would see her, my mind would wander back to that time in my life when she cared for my brother and I. I thought about it this past Saturday as I sat in Tootsie's own hospital room, where she lay during her last few hours on this earth. The doctor came and said the sweetest prayer over her, thanking the Lord for all that she had meant to those who had been blessed to know her, and asking the Lord to be with us as she prepared to pass from this life to the next, which happened around midnight that night. Rest in peace, my sweet nurse, rest in peace.