Unlovable by Sherry Gammon Read Free Book Online Page B

pointed to a coffee table in the
living room. “I was looking through some photos of my days in the
war.” He had several photo albums spread out on the small table. “I
promise to keep you for no more than ten minutes. You still have to
deliver lunch to Miss Ethel, correct?” Seth nodded.
    Seth and I sat on a small tattered
couch while Mr. McSheehy went through several pages of his album
with us. He had received the Purple Heart during World War II, of
which he was very proud. He shared some photos he had taken on the
day the Americans liberated the Concentration camp,
Gusen.
    “ This was taken in May,
1945. That’s me,” he said, pointing to a handsome young soldier.
“My troop went into the Gusen camp in Austria. The day we arrived
thousands of bodies had to be buried in a mass grave and about 300
people a day died thereafter. Not only were they starving to death,
there was also a horrible typhus epidemic throughout the
camps.”
    He slid a photo across the table
toward me of several dead bodies piled on a cart. The people looked
like skeletons with skin on them. It broke my heart. “There was no
food in the kitchen. We were able to find some potatoes in storage
and made a thin soup to feed them. We were also able to make up
some unleavened bread out of oats.
    “ The enemy was barbaric!
Tens of thousands of Jews died in Gusen, and we as people have
become complacent.” He shook a finger in the air dramatically,
stretching up tall in his rickety wheelchair. “We seem to have
forgotten that some th ings are worth dying
for, number one being our fellow man. Fighting to free God’s
children from wickedness like this,” he held up the picture of the
dead bodies in the wheelbarrow, “that price will never be too high
for this soldier to pay.”
    His story touched my soul, and for the
first time ever I felt a connection to the past. I swore never to
forget what Frank McSheehy and his fellow soldiers did that day in
Austria.
    After a few more stories, Seth stood
up. “Mr. McSheehy, we need to get over to Miss Ethel's.” Seth took
my elbow, guiding me toward the door. “How about next Saturday we
deliver your lunch last, and you can share more of your experiences
with us?”
    “ Oh, no. You, a handsome
young man, here with a beautiful young woman,” he nodded his head
toward me. “You don’t need to listen to an old man ramble on about
days long gone.”
    “ I’d love to hear more.”
Something in my eyes must have told him of my sincerity because he
cheerfully agreed to let us return next week for another mini
history lesson. After a hastily offered goodbye, we headed over to
Miss Ethel’s.
    “ It’s sad that so many of
our senior citizens are ignored or shoved into rest homes
unnecessarily. Many still have a lot to offer,” I said as we drove
down a crooked narrow street.
    “ I feel exactly the same
way,” Seth said. The guilt I felt for judging him was now choking
me. I had been slowly turning into my mother and didn’t even
realize it until that very moment. I had an ache in my gut, which
for once wasn’t from hunger.
    Our next stop was at a shabby green
house on Ridgemont. A woman with a deeply lined face and short,
choppy gray hair, Miss Ethel, Seth informed me, was standing at her
window waiting. However, unlike Mr. McSheehy, she looked
angry.
    “ Her bark is worse than her
bite, most days.” I looked at him warily, and he chuckled. “Don’t
worry I’ll protect you.”
    “ Yer late! Talkin’ to old
jabber jaws McSheehy again, I ’spose.” Her hands were planted
firmly on her wide hips. She glared hard at Seth as we entered her
humble home. He smiled and her pursed lips gave way to a grin,
though she tried to stop it. She dropped her hands into the front
pockets of her faded orange housedress and forced her mouth back
into a grim line.
    “ I’m sorry, Miss Ethel, tell
you what, next Saturday we deliver your lunch first.”
    “ That’d be good,” she said,
looking over at me. “My,