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Memoirs of Ruth Hooper

items 25 of 28 items
  • wcu_ww2-465.jp2
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  • walked into the bathroom and closed the door and had the most wonderful bath. I had had no privacy in so long that that within itself was a luxury. We met lots of their friends and all so willing to help us but you get set back on your heels when you are called a "freak". Of course, this was not said by friends but people who, through curiosity . . . came to have a look-see. This is no hearsay, I heard the remarks with my own ears. While I knew I was skinny, my hair in strings, my clothes in rags, I was sick and I was tired - oh so very tired. Then the Red Cross Representatives took us to one of the largest department stores in Los Angeles and there we left our rags and walked out on the street dressed in new clothes from the skin out. When we met people they no longer turned to stare and I heard no one call us "freaks". One sweet little girl who had had nothing to cover her but rags for so long, said as she looked upon the well-dressed people around her "they look different don't they?" We stayed a few days in Los Angeles until the Red Cross could provide a train to take us home. We left for Nashville, Tennessee, on a train carrying troops and from St. Louis, Missouri. I was the only female on board. We were met in Nashville by my sister and husband who took us to Fayetteville, Tennessee, to that wonderful house in the country that I called home. Here I came face to face with something I can only leave to your imagination. You see I had lost both my parents while I was overseas and when there was no papa there, with his wonderful wit to say something to make me laugh, and no mama in whose lap I could lay my head and cry, was about the breaking point for me. I tried to hold this hurt close within my heart, but even today when I let my thoughts go back, the tears come. We stayed in Tennessee a few days with my sister and brother
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).