Fri, Nov 24, 1944: Jack’s death

"Ruby and Homer showed us the letter you wrote to them.  They were very pleased to think you wrote to them and I am sure they appreciate it so very much.  They lamented the fact that it would be almost impossible to answer all of their letters immediately, at least, because they had received one-hundred fifty letters since Jack's death."

-- Letter from my grandmother, Bloomington, Kans., to my father, Boulder, Colorado, November 24, 1944.  My father's boyhood friend, Jack Seal, had been killed in action near Bologna, Italy, on October 16.  Ruby and Homer were his parents.  He was part of the gang of four boys, all born in 1925, that were best friends growing up in Bloomington.  All four served in the military in World War II.  All but Jack survived the war and lived to be old men.  In my father’s memoir, he wrote “Jack had the best personality of any of us.  He was handsome, friendly, and buoyant.  Life was just beginning when it was cut short at nineteen.”
            In a 2007 letter, my father wrote about how Jack’s mother learned of her son’s death:  “Homer and Ruby Seal ran the Bloomington Store across from the schoolhouse.  Ruby spotted the postman, probably Arnie Kistler (Beryl Folk’s father-in-law), approaching the school at an unusual hour in the afternoon.  She breathed a sigh of relief thinking that his delivery of a telegram was for someone else.  The postman, however, had merely gone to the school to recruit a delegation of women (who were meeting there) to accompany him as he entered the store.  ‘Is it Jack?,’ Ruby asked.  ‘Yes, it is,’ replied Sally Davenport.  Scenes in Ken Burn’s ‘War,’ now on PBS, are reminiscent of that event.
            “Edward King and I were both home on leave when memorial services were held for Jack at Dunsford Funeral Home.  Jack’s Dad whose heart was surely breaking at the loss of his only son, told us in a friendly voice, ‘Jack isn’t here, but I am sure glad his buddy’s could come.’  Later, my folks brought Homer and Ruby to Stillwater, Oklahoma, where we were living, for a family visit.  We had four children growing up.  Later, Ruby wrote to say, ‘I saw how it might have been if Jack had lived.’”