I know for most people this is a three-day weekend to rest, relax, and play. And that's good; those are among the things I plan on doing myself. But also don't forget what Memorial Day is actually for, and that's honoring those who paid the ultimate price so you can rest, relax, and play.
People like George Kamecki.
George was born to Ignatius and Mary Kamecki of Marquette in 1923. He went to Bishop Baraga School, worked at the Delft Theater, and eventually ended up working at the Fisher Body plant in Flint. During World War II, he was drafted into the US Army, where he saw action in Germany before dying while trying to cross the Danube River near Regensberg, Germany in April, 1945, just days before the Germans surrendered to end the European Theater of the war.
George died two days after his 22nd birthday.
George's story is much like those of the 240 + other residents of Marquette and Alger Counties who died during the war, but with two twists. The first is a sad twist. While George was one of Marquette's final casualties of World War II, his brother Aloysius was one of the first, having served on a ship sunk by Germany even before the U.S. had entered the war. So the Kamecki family suffered not one but two terrible blows during those years.
The second twist is a bit stranger, and a little more modern. As you know, Loraine's spent most of the past 20 years researching people like George. Every once in a while she gets an e-mail from someone asking a question, or offering information. About a year ago, she received one of those notes, from a person in Canada she had never met, who had come into possession of several letters found in a New York apartment by a firefighter. The letters? They'd been written by George Kamecki of Marquette to a woman in New York he met while stationed at a camp in Mississippi, and somehow this guy in Canada connected Loraine with the letters.
Small world, isn't it?
The letters (one of which is pictured above) are fascinating, and they really bring George to life. He apparently had both a flair for writing and a way with the ladies, two things that never come through when you're reading dry things like newspaper articles or Army reports. The letters show George to be just like every other young man in the U.S. in the middle of the 20th century, a young man with a sense of humor, a healthy appetite, and dreams for the future.
Dreams that, tragically, were cut short on the banks of the Danube River in April of 1945.
So while you're out resting, relaxing, and taking it easy this weekend, spend a second and think of guys like George. After all, they never got the chance to do that very same thing themselves.
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