Bodies on the Cold Ground

I heard an interesting   story from a man from Toronto at dinner. We had chatted a bit about history, the American Civil War, etc. I had mentioned how I along with my ancestors and offspring had fought in every American conflict. He then began his story about his father's participation in WWII.  It seems his father was shot in the head by a German sniper.  This was during the invasion following Normandy. It was the winter of 1944 and the snow covered ground was occupied by the Germans He was left on the ground for dead in a puddle of his own blood. Bloody white fragments of his skull punctuated the snow.  The temperature was freezing .  When they were gathering up the dead, the frozen bodies gave new meaning to the word, "stiff". The Canadian's father was discovered to be breathing. A sharp-sharp-red young man noticed the breath of a seemingly dead soldier condensing in the frigid air.They gathered  some of the bone fragments from the back of his head before transporting him to a field hospital. Believing that death was imminent the doctors stuck an IV in his arm and pushed his bed over the corner and waited for him to die. But he refused to die. When asked about it later he said that he was in a snow covered field one minute and then he woke up in the hospital a month later. After realizing that he wasn't going to die they placed a steel plate in his head and sent him home. The right side of his body side had no feeling in it. His mother was over protective. He was wheelchair bound and she waited on him hand and foot. After all he was her baby boy. One day, while visiting, the family priest, who was probably with Noah on the ark, convinced her that she had to let him go through lengthy rehabilitation. And that if she continued caring for him hand and foot, he would remain in a wheelchair the rest of his life. At first he could barely stand and then he sought himself to walk by pushing a chair around. With improvement he managed to get a job  and managed to have a good life with a good wife who presented him with ten children.  However, the memories the war remained and he ways wondered how he had gotten off that battlefield.  Late in life he attended a reunion of the members of his old army unit. He was surprised to hear a voice from behind announce, "You look a lot better than the last time I saw you!"Surprised, the handicapped veteran exclaimed, "Who arenyou? I don't know you!"

"I'm the man that put your butt in a wheelbarrow to get you off the field when you were shot many years ago." A Iife long friendship began that day.