My Bariatric Surgery Adventure

Before getting back to my personal adventure, I really need to tell you about my hospital roommate.  Fred came into my room on Thursday night after my surgery,  He was a little out of it when he arrived having spent a day or so in recovery facility and major surgery on his leg.  He was most worred about getting his tv working and told anyone around that he was legally blind.

By Friday I started to speak to Fred ona regulat basis.  He is 85 years old and lives on his own in the house he raised his four kids in.  I found out that his wife died 4 years ago and that his most social moments are going to the localk YMCA three times a week.  He worked for the telephone company and was a supervisor before he retired in 1984.

His two sons live close to where he lives and his two daughters were elsewhere with their husbands.  His oldest is 62 (about my age) and his youngest is 50.  We talked a lot about family and I revealed most of my life as well.

We were speaking one day about getting married and having kids.  I told him that my parents got married after the war and that my father has served in the navy as a clerk.  He then told me that he could not get married when he wanted to becuase he was  a naval air cadet.  I asked him what he flew and he then told me that he flew dive bombers off a carrier in the Pacific during WWII.  I was floored.  This 85 year old legally blind and hobbled by surgery had flow dive bombers into Japanese ships during the war.  He also told me that he was a carrier based pilot.

This guy was truly one of the real American heros of that “greatest generation” that Tom Brokow wrote about,

He then told me that being the dive bomber was not as hard as flying topedo planes which came in at 100 fee off the ocean and were sitting ducks for the anti aircraft gunners on the Japanese ships,  He said that part of the job of the Dive Bomber was to come directly out of the sky and keep the Japanese gunners busy while the torpedo planes launched their torpedoes.  He was completely calm in discussing this.  This was a job that a nation had asked him to do and he did it and then he returned to the US to work for the telephone company.

He then remarked that more of the flyers died learning to fly then in the war itself.  He said that the training was so rushed that many of his comrades died learning to land and take off on carriers.  He thought that landing was the most dangerous since they had to hit the hook just right or they were off the deck.

His story is of a generation we are losing one by one,  When I told him that my Dad had gotten out of combat because he passed a typing test at the end of boot camp in the Navy.  He said that guys who did this in the army usually ended up on the front line carrying messages from post to post.

Fred was still very sharp about his investments and his life.  He said that he was considering going to rehab rather than home so he could get a ride from the hospital.  He also told me that his one son was head of advertising for a very large car dealership around Boston and that he had a demanding owner/boss.  His other son sold carpeting and was struggling with the recession.

He was greatful for the pension from Verizon, medicare and Social Security and clearly was going to be on his own as long as he could.  He was very proud of his grandfather who was born in the 1850’s and refurnished furniture for a large department store.  He also told me a lovely story about his parents. He said his dad was “practically an orphan” and when he got married he wanted his wife to cook a nice meal every night,  His dad told his mom, who was not much of cook when they married, that if she cooked a dinner that did not turn out right, she could just throw it out.

He also was very proud of his grandson in Medical School and a grand daughter who was a social worker but was looking for a job that paid better.

I have had several roommate during my various hospital stays in the last few years, but none as interesting and as sharp as Fred.  It made the stay much easier.  I just wanted to make sure that I added him to my blog.  A true American Hero.