Camp McCoy in the Words of My Uncle: 2021-02-21

Less than two weeks before leaving Camp McCoy

September 19, 1943

Sunday Evening

Dearest Mother, Dad, Brother & All,

Here I am in Tomah at Marian's house. Had a nice dinner and also supper. I asked Marian what she thought about me writing this letter and she said I should. Here it is.

Now, Mother dear, keep your chin up and don't forget you have someone to lean on in times of troubles. I know you pray and your prayers will always follow me no matter where I go. Mother dear, I may move, although I'm not sure it may be overseas. Don't worry, Mother dear, I'm coming back because your prayers will bring me back home. I'm O.K. and feel fine. I've got my chin up, shoulders back and marching straight forward like a good soldier. Please don't take it hard dear. I'm coming home soon. It won't be long now. Next week is like a black cloud on the horizon, but I'm ready because I have the grandest Mom in the world going with me even if I can not see her beside me. You know the old saying, "For Mother's prayers will follow me. Will follow me the whole world through." After to-night my letters I send may be censored. Give my love to my family and my friends. Good bye, Mother, Good bye, Dad, also brother and sisters.

P.S. I love you, Mother. Love and Kisses to All. Charles.

I was choking back tears as I wrote this letter this evening. It had to have been one of the hardest letters he would ever have to write. He must be scared but is also assured his mother's prayers, my grandmother's prayers, will bring him back home.

I was also moved to know he had shared this news with Marian and had spent time with her and asked her what he should do about writing the letter to the mother he loved so very much. I know without a doubt Uncle Charlie and Marian's relationship was completely platonic. He knew and had said several times marriage would never be a possibility for them. However, I can see Marian sitting beside my uncle as he wrote this letter and even holding him in her arms while tears may have flowed down both their cheeks. By the postmark on the envelope, it is clear the letter was sent from Tomah, Wisconsin.

Even after going overseas Marian and Uncle Charlie would write letters to each other and Marian would even write to Uncle Charlie's mother at least once. I don't know when the letters stopped, but I know Marian gets married to Bernard Sauer a month after my uncle was discharged from Camp Swift, Texas in October 1945. So sometime a letter must have been sent from Marian about her engagement.

We are, however, two years from those dates. The evening of September 19, 1943, at Marian's family home, Uncle Charlie writes the letter that would have a major impact on many lives in Wisconsin and Maine. I am thankful my uncle had Marian in this time of his life where he could have been completely open and honest to share with someone how he was feeling as the "black cloud on the horizon" was moving closer to him and his future.