~ What Did You Do In The War, Grandma? ~

by

Sherry Derr~Wille

“Gwen, Gwen Marshall, is that really you?”

Gwen turned at the sound of someone calling her by her maiden name. As she did she recognized the melodious voice of Dr. Chuck Ouster. In all the years since Vietnam, she’d thought of him often. Why shouldn’t she? He’d been considered the hottest doctor in the MASH unit where she worked as a nurse for two tours of duty.

For Gwen, like most of her fellow nurses, it had been the first time they’d been away from home, like really away. Nursing school hadn’t counted since she took her training at Minter Memorial Hospital and stayed in the room she’d occupied all her life at home.

It was the sixties, and an enemy attack could have taken their lives at any minute. Chuck had been a great lover until he told her of his wife and kids in Los Angeles. He’d returned to them never knowing that she carried his child.

“Chuck,” she replied. “What are you doing in Minter?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

She looked into his soft brown eyes, thinking about how he hadn’t changed much over the past forty years. He was one of those guys who was attractive to women and very easy to go to bed with. The only difference she could see was the fact that his hair was streaked with white, making the black stand out even more. Back in Vietnam, he’d told her that he had Indian blood, Crow to be exact. “This is my hometown, but that doesn’t answer my question.”

“Who’s your friend, Mom?” Chere asked, when she came over to the table.

Chere’s interruption was far from unexpected; it was the last day of school, and Chere and her daughter, Francine, always came to the hospital cafeteria to meet Gwen on her lunch hour. Should she tell them the truth that Chuck was Chere’s father, or let sleeping dogs lie? She quickly decided on the latter as the best course of action.

“Honey, this is someone I served in Vietnam with, Dr. Chuck Ouster. Chuck, this is my daughter, Chere, and my granddaughter, Francine.”

“Were you in the war, Grandma?” Francine asked. “We learned about Vietnam in school this year.”

Chuck shook hands with Chere and then turned his attention to Francine. “Your grandma was a nurse, and I was a doctor in a MASH unit.”

“Like on the TV show? My other grandpa likes to watch it.”

“Sort of like that. We took care of the soldiers who were wounded.”

Gwen turned her thoughts inward while Chuck told Francine about the unit where they’d been stationed. Francine’s mention of MASH had brought back vivid memories. While the entire country had been laughing at the antics of the over-sexed doctors and meatball surgery, she had refused to watch it. The stories hit too close to the truth of what happened during her time in Vietnam.

“Mom doesn’t talk much about that time in her life,” Chere said.

“I don’t blame her. It was a bad time. I never forgot her though.” He turned his attention back to Gwen and took her hand in his. “Are you still nursing?”

“Mom’s the director of nursing at this hospital.”

Chuck’s grip on her hand tightened, and he broke into a wide grin. “Good, that means we could run into each other from time to time. I retired just prior to my wife’s death. Everything in California reminded me of her. Then one of my former patients told me about the free clinic they’re starting here. I checked it out and found they were looking for a chief of medicine. I applied and was hired, so I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

Chuck excused himself, leaving Gwen with memories she’d buried on the day she left Vietnam.

“What a hunk! Why didn’t you ever tell us about him, Mom?” Chere asked.

“I tried to forget about the people I knew over there. Like Chuck said, it was a bad time for all of us. I saw too many men die needlessly. It wasn’t all fun and games like on that damnable TV show.” Except at night when Chuck and I were together. Then it was heaven on earth.

“But Grandma, how could you forget a dreamboat like Dr. Ouster?” Francine asked.

Gwen smiled. She tended to forget Francine was now sixteen and boy crazy. She also knew she could never forget the man who fathered her child. Though as far as everyone else was concerned, she’d had an affair with a medic who promised marriage but was killed before arrangements could be made.

“I didn’t forget, Frannie, not really. When his enlistment was up, he went back to California and I came home to Minter. He had a wife and kids and I met your grandpa. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Chere gave her a look that said more than words. She knew Doug wasn’t her real father. The excuse Gwen had used for the reason she got no support from the government was she had no proof that the medic she’d made up to pacify her parents was really her child’s father. At the time her father had branded her a slut and swore he’d never forgive her for the shame she’d brought on the family.

It had been her mother who defused the volatile situation. Of course, as soon as Chere was born, none of that mattered. She was grandpa’s girl from the get go.

“Did you and Dr. Ouster take care of my dad when he was wounded?” Chere asked, bringing to the forefront the lie Gwen had lived for so long.

I took care of him, but not in the way you think. “No, he was killed in the field. There was no need for him to be sent back to the unit.” She congratulated herself on the convenient lie she’d pulled off.

“I wish I would have known him,” Chere lamented. She’d said the same thing many times since she’d been a child. “Didn’t you say he was from Los Angeles?”

Gwen cringed. Her made-up lover had come from California, because that was where Chere’s father actually lived. It had been much easier than making up other details she could have forgotten.

“Like Dr. Ouster?” Francine asked.

“Yes, like Dr. Ouster, but they didn’t know each other before the war. Come to think of it, Chuck had gone stateside before Charlie got to the unit.” Why wasn’t I a little more creative with my pretend lover’s name? Chuck, Charlie, they are too close to be believable. What if Chere realizes the hunk, as she calls Chuck, is really her father? Will she ever forgive me? “You would have liked him. We were planning to get married when we got back home, but things happened that were beyond our control.”

“Just think, if things would have been different, I would have grown up in California.” You might have worked at Dr. Ouster’s hospital, Grandma,” Francine added. “That would have been way cool.”

No it wouldn’t. I could have never kept the fact Chere is his daughter a secret. It would have ruined his marriage. It’s better that I came home and raised my daughter alone. Besides, I had a good life with Doug. Life with Chuck might have been much different. Once a cheater, always a cheater, at least that’s what everyone says.

“Los Angeles is a big city, with a lot of hospitals,” Gwen finally said. “I could have lived there for years and never run into him. As I recall he had a wife and at least two kids at home. It was rough on the guys who had to leave their families alone. Of course, most of the nurses were single. We were all just out of nursing school and very lonely.”

“So how did you meet my grandpa?” Francine asked.

Gwen was glad she had carefully fabricated her story years earlier. “Charlie was a medic attached to our unit. We had a call saying they needed help at the front line, and he volunteered to go. I was about ready to be shipped home when I learned he’d been killed in an attack. It was devastating.”

The explanation satisfied both Chere and Francine, and thankfully the subject was dropped. Instead of dwelling on the appearance of Chuck the subject turned to the things Francine had on her mind.