What happened to Uncle David? And the Red Cross. This is a tear jerker.
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, I remember telling Dad that I'd donated to the Red Cross. Dad got furious and told me NEVER to donate to the Red Cross; they were horrible people and the organization shouldn't exist. Here's that story, and the story of what happened to Uncle David.
Let's see if I can get all the facts in here... Slim Hampton (Edwin Earl Hampton Sr) separated from Ange Atkinson Isham Hampton (Atkinson was a middle name, not a previous married name) when Dad was still a teenager... He was living with another woman in Coalinga working for Keck (yep, that Keck). I know nothing about the other woman. Ange at that time was running a boarding house, and both boys were living with her; I don't know if Slim paid her any child support, or if they had a boarding house before Slim moved out.
Dad had interesting ideas about food. You ate what was put in front of you; you didn't talk much while you were eating; and you didn't change the food with flavorings, sauces, condiments. I believe this came from the years living in a boarding house. This was in harsh contrast with my mom's European attitude towards slow social meals.
Dad enrolled in CalTech in 1941 after he graduated from Wasco High School; he had to come home early from his first semester after Slim died of a massive heart attack at the age of 46 (b. 1894). He was planning on returning for the spring semester in January, when Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7. On the advice of his uncles and grandparents, he enlisted in the Navy, hoping that joining early would get him a safer position.
David Dillion Hampton was Dad's younger brother; I think he was three years younger. He enlisted in the Navy when he was old enough, just like Dad, and was deployed on a destroyer. At some point Ange was diagnosed with cancer; Dad wasn't told what kind, so I'm guessing it was a women's specific cancer... In 1944, they told her she didn't have long to live, so Dad went to the Red Cross repeatedly to ask for leave to see her before she died. They refused. And she died. He was so distraught at not getting to see her that he refused the Red Cross's offer to get him home for the funeral; what was the point, she was already dead?
But he did get leave to go home. He missed the funeral (David attended), and then missed seeing David in Los Angeles by a couple of days. A few months later, David was drowned when his destroyer rolled in the Tasman Sea; a few ships in the convoy went down. I've attached the letter Dad received from the highest ranking surviving officer.
But before he got the letter, there were rumors of the incident; it was the Naval incident that resulted in a rule that brothers can't serve on the same ship; one family lost all 7 sons on one of the ships that went down. So there was some amount of time in which he did not know if his brother was alive or dead. I cannot imagine...
So in the space of 4 years, my father lost his entire nuclear family. The shadow of this loss would hang over the house like a fog, especially in early December. That's the month his brother died and the month when his mom's birthday was.
Out of respect for my father, I have never donated to the Red Cross since.
Let's see if I can get all the facts in here... Slim Hampton (Edwin Earl Hampton Sr) separated from Ange Atkinson Isham Hampton (Atkinson was a middle name, not a previous married name) when Dad was still a teenager... He was living with another woman in Coalinga working for Keck (yep, that Keck). I know nothing about the other woman. Ange at that time was running a boarding house, and both boys were living with her; I don't know if Slim paid her any child support, or if they had a boarding house before Slim moved out.
Dad had interesting ideas about food. You ate what was put in front of you; you didn't talk much while you were eating; and you didn't change the food with flavorings, sauces, condiments. I believe this came from the years living in a boarding house. This was in harsh contrast with my mom's European attitude towards slow social meals.
Dad enrolled in CalTech in 1941 after he graduated from Wasco High School; he had to come home early from his first semester after Slim died of a massive heart attack at the age of 46 (b. 1894). He was planning on returning for the spring semester in January, when Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7. On the advice of his uncles and grandparents, he enlisted in the Navy, hoping that joining early would get him a safer position.
David Dillion Hampton was Dad's younger brother; I think he was three years younger. He enlisted in the Navy when he was old enough, just like Dad, and was deployed on a destroyer. At some point Ange was diagnosed with cancer; Dad wasn't told what kind, so I'm guessing it was a women's specific cancer... In 1944, they told her she didn't have long to live, so Dad went to the Red Cross repeatedly to ask for leave to see her before she died. They refused. And she died. He was so distraught at not getting to see her that he refused the Red Cross's offer to get him home for the funeral; what was the point, she was already dead?
But he did get leave to go home. He missed the funeral (David attended), and then missed seeing David in Los Angeles by a couple of days. A few months later, David was drowned when his destroyer rolled in the Tasman Sea; a few ships in the convoy went down. I've attached the letter Dad received from the highest ranking surviving officer.
But before he got the letter, there were rumors of the incident; it was the Naval incident that resulted in a rule that brothers can't serve on the same ship; one family lost all 7 sons on one of the ships that went down. So there was some amount of time in which he did not know if his brother was alive or dead. I cannot imagine...
So in the space of 4 years, my father lost his entire nuclear family. The shadow of this loss would hang over the house like a fog, especially in early December. That's the month his brother died and the month when his mom's birthday was.
Out of respect for my father, I have never donated to the Red Cross since.
ETA: I've scanned the letter..
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