Grace Smith 2

War memoirs of Grace Smith

Part II (Part I)

VB: You were right on the lines?

We weren’t on the firing lines, but we were close.

VB: Did you have any scary experiences?

No, not really. You could hear the bombing. It didn’t put us at ease, but it didn’t scare us either. We were there to serve.

VB: Did you have any special experiences?

I met my husband in Tunis, North Africa. He was in the corps of engineers and they had a mess hall where the officers ate and usually every night when I went down to eat my dinner, he would join me. I don't know where he came from but he managed to join me.

VB: How did you know that he was the one?

Oh, something about him. His halo.

VB: He had a halo?

No not really. [laugh]

VB: He was a saint?

He was close to being one in my eyes. He was the answer to a maiden’s prayer.

VB: When did you start dating?

I don’t know if it was in North Africa or when we got to Naples. But when we went to the mess hall, we had a special place where we sat.

One night out of the clear blue sky he said, "Will you marry me?"

I said, "I can’t marry you, you’re not a Catholic." He said that wouldn’t make any idfference. I said, oh yes it would: you have to promise that I could practice my faith and if we had any children they would be baptized Catholic. He said, "Sure, that doesn’t bother me." I said, "Oh, I’ll think this over." The next night I was asked for an answer and I said, "Yes, I ’d like to marry you," provided I could practice my faith and any children... would be baptized in the faith. He said, "Don’t worry about it," so I didn’t worry about it.

VB: Where did you get married?

In Naples, in our army chapel.

VB: Did you get to wear your uniform?

Yes, when we were married in our army chapel. And my best friend in nursing school was also in the unit with me— her name was Agnes Kuth—and she was my bridesmaid. As I say, we were married in the army chapel which was a prefab... which was one step above being a tent.

When we went overseas we were told to bring an evening gown with us just in case we had the opportunity to go out. And as it so happened, I had gone downtown to McAlpin's, which was one of our big stores [Ed. note: McAlpin's was a Cincinnati store. The interviewee may be confusing the name with a different department store in Brooklyn], and I saw a pretty white evening gown—sleeveless—and I thought, oh this would be nice to bring with me. So I bought it. Then when the occasion came for me to get married, I needed a wedding dress, so here I was with a dress with no sleeves. So I wrote home to my mother and asked her to get I-don’t-know-how-many yards of—I think they called it [French words]—a flimsy material, and she sent it to me. And then, living very close to us in Naples was a convent of sisters who did sewing. So out of this material which my mother bought in Brooklyn they did sleeves for my white evening gown. And as I say, my very best friend... she was my bridesmaid. And my mother sent me ... a cap to wear and the sisters made a veil for me. They were wonderful. ... They were Italian sisters, I forget what order they belonged.

VB: Did you have a priest?

Oh yes, a priest married us. A Catholic chaplain.

VB: Did your husband convert?

No he never did. But when he was buried... he was buried from St. Gertrude Church in Madeira [Ohio].

VB: What was his religion?

Well, he was Episcopalian, but he didn’t work very hard at it. [laugh]

VB: Did you have any effect on him spiritually?

Well, when he decided to go to church, he’d always come with me. But he never converted.

VB: Did you have any children?

We had three. We had two boys and a girl...

...

There’s a Catholic girls school up in Rome, I can’t think of the name of it, and the girls were all back in the States. The woman who was in charge of the school wrote to our head nurse and said, if any of our nurses were ever in Rome with an overnight pass they would be welcome to stay in the school without charge, so they wouldn’t have to pay hotel fees someplace. So I and another nurse were sent to Rome to look the school over and it was beautiful...

Another nurse and I were sent up to Rome to visit this girls school... So another nurse from Brooklyn, Helen Baker, and I were sent up to look the school over, which we did, and the chaplain ... was still living at the school. His name was Father Leahy. And he told Helen and I that if we got up early the next morning and had breakfast with the sisters, he would take us to the Vatican. So our breakfast with the sisters... When Helen and I went up we both carried what they called a care package and she had cereal and so on. I had a whole slab of bacon. The sisters hadn’t seen bacon in quite a while, so not only were we welcome, so was the bacon [laugh] ...

Each day if you went down the right hand aisle of St. Peters you eventually got to a big room where the Holy Father spoke to the people every day. So Helen and I got up there and we heard him speaking to the troops. Pope Pius XII addressed us in several [languages] like Spanish and English—I don’t think Italian, we were at war with Italy... Well, when he came out to address the group, he must have spotted Helen and I because we were off to one side ... and as soon as he finished addressing everybody, he came down the steps and he headed in our direction. I said, "Helen, he’s coming toward us," which he did. As soon as he got to us he went like this, so we knelt down, so we kissed his ring. He put his hands on our head and then blessed us. He said to us, "Where are you from?" So instead of saying "the Allies" or "the United States, guess what said?

VB: What?

Brooklyn! [laugh] I guess as cardinal, as Cardinal Pacelli, he had been to Brooklyn, so he laughed.

VB: You guys were in uniform right?

Oh yes, you didn’t dare travel without uniform. That was a mortal sin...

VB: How did you feel?

I could have bitten my heart, I was so thrilled... He was not a big man, he was very thin. I still pray to him. I know he’s in heaven.

END