Today is "Traditional Memorial Day." It is Friday, May 30. All is calm here in the community.
V.W. Resident was enjoying his coffee, and the morning view of the canal, when the "nice lady" across the street rang the bell. She had something to say. It was about her Dad, and it relates to this holiday. V.W. thought he would pass this story along.
The lady showed me this modest oak display case. It hangs a wall in her house here in the community. It is in the shape of a triangle, and has a glass front. Inside the case is a folded American Flag. There is also a picture laying on top of that flag of an old merchant ship - the S.S. James W. Denver.
During WW II it was customary for merchant ships to have U.S. Navy Sailors on board to man the guns and generally protect the ship. The lady's Dad, who was 19 years old at the time, served on this ship.
The S.S. Denver became a little known causality of World War II. It was lost before V.W.R. and his lady friend were ever born. In fact it was only one of 731 merchant ships lost in the war. It is but a footnote to World War II history.
Elmer "Gerry" Cornwell, originally from the Port Huron area in Michigan served on the "Denver" in 1943. He survived the attack on "his ship" and ultimately made it home. Like a million other guys, who returned from the war, he got married, and had a family. He and his wife, Lois, had four "kids." They were Gerald, Lois, Dennis, and Mark.
The aforementioned Lois was born on July 11. She will probably use a broomstick, in a manner for which it was not intended, if I fill in the year of her birth. Today she is content to be a good neighbor here in Verona Walk. Her days are filled with many fine memories including those of her Dad.
The lady's' father, Gerry, died at the age of 48. He saw his oldest son and daughter get married; and he saw three grandchildren come into this world. He missed out on the births' of another six grandchildren. During his life he never said one word about his experience as Sailor in the Navy - not a word! Sixty some years later research shows that the S.S. James W. Denver was torpedoed on April 11, 1943 by the German "Underseeboot 195" in the North Atlantic.
Fifteen men survived. They clung to a raft as their ship sunk deep into the Atlantic Ocean. On April 24, 1943 the British Ship "Campana" found the survivors. They had been adrift for nearly two weeks.
After years of "never knowing" her fathers' war experience, the neighbor lady now has a fitting memorial to remind her of this story. She just has to take a daily glance at a simple display case on her wall. It tells the story every day.
V.W. thinks she, and her five children, and eleven grandchildren, will always have a good reason to hold their heads high on Memorial Day.
