Momma has so many stories, some true, well, if not downright lies, at least fanciful. This one is rather humbling and sad, yet it is what you’d call life…the baptism by fire…so to speak.
He was a hometown War Hero…she was an unknown citified War Bride from over the Pond. But loves conquers all…right? But just between you and me, small town born and raised, to church three times each Sunday, doesn’t make for tolerance.
After all, the War Hero had disrespected your sister, niece or cousin by bringing a stranger in the mix. Anyone too big for their britches needed to learn the hard way that you didn’t up and do things without sanctions being imposed, cred being earned, if you wanted acceptance into this tight-knit bucolic community.
Well, a baby is always an ice breaker and so the young couple produced a handsome, talented son that seamlessly slid in to a hostile environment, invoking smiles and acceptance to such a degree some of the sting from the initial insults melted like snow on a spring day.
Emboldened by their success, the War Hero and his War Bride did what most folks did after the return from the Second World War. They grew their family….but this time…they were blessed with twins, a little boy and girl, born prematurely,
kept alive only by the Grace of God and some said, the act of baptism. We called them Twin Boy Blue & Twin Girl Pink…but they were polar opposite of their cool Big Brother, another Hometown Hero, the Class Clown, the all round Bon Vivant. The boy was Golden. The twins, though, struggled in school to learn, to make friends to fit in….but they always had each other.
But everyone knows that the true heroes are recognized when tested, like iron in a fire. And so it took a tragedy for us to see Twin Boy Blue’s strength and heroism. It just so happened Twin Boy Blue, Twin Girl Pink and the Hometown Hero were at a nightclub that was torched by revenge seeking disgruntled customers who had been literally tossed down the stairs for bad behaviour by the Bouncer. When the EXIT was blocked with flames, the club goers trampled each other to get to the windows and out to safety. The Hometown Hero, being fast to react, was outside lickety-split-quick; yet burdened by the thought that Twin Boy Blue, and Twin Girl Pink were still in the towering inferno.
Meanwhile, Twin Boy Blue also had sized up the situation in a hurry. He hustled his Twin Girl Pink out the window as she protested she would break her freaking neck if she jumped from a second storey. Along with the Bouncer, Twin Boy Blue helped the panicked club goers out the window, only leaving his post when the place was cleared of living clientele.
Way too many young souls winged their way to heaven that night. It was touch and go for Twin Boy Blue whose lungs had been infiltrated by the flames as well as suffering various burns to his face and hands. Luckily, Twin Girl Pink had little damage beyond cuts and bruises so was ready to be released from the hospital. The discharge papers were signed. Hobbling over to Twin Boy Blue’s bed, she saw her brother swathed in bandages, so still, so many tubes coming and going that she collapsed and died beside him, unable to face the possibility of a life without him. T.R.U.E. S.T.O.R.Y.
But God is full of surprises and our new Hometown Hero, Twin Boy Blue lived to see another day. Seems sometimes we are too blind to see just a little polishing can make the gold burnish brightly… so bright you can see what we had missed all along.
Now our Hometown Hero Twin Boy Blue is welcome at the Cool Kids table…because if he doesn’t belong there by now…well, who does?
