WAITING FOR THE SHIP
I ended up in a small town along the banks of the Seine River
and found myself getting hungry again. I figured God had provided my breakfast
and my lunch and now he should take care of my dinner and while he was at it I
thought he should get me a place to sleep for the night as well.
I sat down on the street curb and was thinking these thoughts
when I looked at my watch and decided I was going to give my Guru three minutes
time to take care of my needs. I knew he would provide and I began my wait.
Within two and half minutes a young lady about 28 or 30 years old comes over to
me to ask me what I was doing sitting there on the curb. I told her I was
waiting for dinner and a place to stay.
She no doubt thought I was crazy and needed help. She told me
to follow her into a building were some kind of community meeting was going on
with the people in the town. She sat me down in the back of the room and went up
to talk to the people running the meeting.
They all stopped talking and turned to look me over. They
motioned to an older women who came to take me by the hand and lead me outside.
The other women came back and explained that this sea captain's wife who had
nine children at home was going to take me home with her. She did not speak
English but some of her children did. She was a very kindly women and treated me
like I was one of her own sons. She gave me a bed and something to eat before I
went to bed.
I was welcomed not only in her home but it seemed the whole
town took an interest in me and my situation. Each day someone in town would get
me a copy of an American newspaper and people would give me food and donuts all
day long as I walked around the town. The school requested that I spend some
time helping them with their English classes. I would show up at the school and
they would have me talk to the English language classes and have the children
speak back to me. It was fun for everyone including myself. I told them about
surfing, American football and dating in the good old USA.
I tried to be helpful around the house and did yard work and
help paint the house. I did not realize that some of her flowers were not weeds
as I pulled them up out of garden. She tried not to show that she was upset
about it but I knew I blew it. She hugged me anyway and tried to make me feel OK
about it.
I was given tours of the countryside areas around the town
and taken to see the famous beaches that were used for the D Day Invasions. I
was taken to the beach and had a strange inner dream while standing in the area
looking out at the sea.
I felt the struggle and fear of a young American solider
wounded and drowning in the surf of that beach. I felt instant sorrow and then
relief. I somehow felt all that young man had thought and feared as he rolled
dead in the surf that day. I felt the loss he felt at having never seen France
and having died without ever getting to fight the war.
I then realized at some level within, that I was that same
man coming back to where it had ended 21 years before. I felt strange about it
and wasn't sure if it was real or just my imagination. It was such a strong
dream and feeling that I believe it had to be me I was seeing and feeling that
day.
When I left that town the people had set me up to stay with
an old college professor and his wife. They told me that they had waited 21
years to repay an American for freeing their city and kicking the Germans out.
He told me personal accounts of the invasion as he saw it from his residence
that week. He saw the dead GIs floating in the waves and his heart went out to
them. He then made it a point to show me all that he could and treated me as his
token American to repay. I somehow felt that within me rooted somewhere this
very desire was now being fulfilled even if it took a second lifetime to do so.
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