Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
I suspect there are millions of such stories out there in the world about people like Ms Nearne who perform rarely noticed amazing deeds of selfless service to society...and then live out their lives in relative anonymity.
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Richard....you are correct.
Pete....thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Ms. Nearne....Rest in Peace, Ma'am.
These people are truly the Greatest Generation!
Not meaning to take anything away from Ms. Nearne.....I relate this only to emphasize what Richard said. They did not talk about what they did, because they did not want any glory or praises heaped upon them. Even up to the last breath.
My mother was French and was with the French Resistance during her teenage years. She never talked about her time with the Resistance. She died in 1994 after fighting breast cancer for 3 years. A friend of hers encouraged her to write a book about her service, which she did during the last 2 years of her life. She was 70 at the time of her death. I got the chance to read the proof copy, with tears in my eyes, on the day of her funeral.
She, my uncle, and grandmother were all with different cells of the Resistance for security purposes.
My mother and grandmother were both arrested by the Gestapo and held for 10 days in separate jail cells. Beaten and questioned, they, luckily told the same lies and were released.
Mom assisted with moving and hiding downed Allied pilots, hiding Jews from the Nazis, translating and typing coded messages to and from England. She transporting weapons under potato sacks on a cart attached to her bicycle with her little sister sitting on the sacks through Nazi camps.
At the end of the war, she was decommisioned by the French Government as a 2LT and received a small pension. All of this I learned after her death and reading the book.
My grandmother moved to the states where she eventually moved to D.C. to work as a cook and nanny for high ranking Government officials and ex-ambassadors.
During my SF training, while attending DLI in Arlington, she told me that one of her friends told her that as Special Forces, I was like the Gestapo and SS. She was extremely upset. I assured that we are not!
R.I.P. and Thank You for your service, Ms. Nearne, Mom, Grandma Marguerite, and Uncle Jean (John)! They were truly QP's.
Carl
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