Time Traveling

I love to travel on our sailboat seeing the world through salt covered eyes. The places and people fascinate me, challenge my beliefs and change my views on what is and what can be. There are so many places to go, but one place that I never imagined being able to visit is the past.

Last Saturday, Ray and I traveled over to Melbourne to get his 90 year old aunt. She had been taken to the hospital with confusion, dizziness and heart palpitations. Aunt Rae could no longer stay at her apartment and had no where to go..... or so she thought! Ray sat down and wanted to talk things over with me and then shed tears of relief when I explained that the only solution was to bring Aunt Rae to live with us. We traveled across the state and ended up at the hospital in Melbourne. It was shocking to see how thin she was and how weak she looked. We packed her suitcases with some clothing and started the three and a half hours back over to Punta Gorda. In the past week we have fed her and talked with her and she has thrived! One night I sat to talk with her and my adventurous spirit was transported farther than I ever could have imagined going.....

"Back in 1953, I was getting ready to go to Korea as a nurse with the United States Navy. I had sold my car and was ready to leave my home in San Diego and go help the troops.

All of us girls were called to the ship for a meeting and there we all met in our starched uniforms. The head nurse said that she had good new and bad news for us. The bad news was that we would not be going to Korea. There was a collective moan throughout the room until she hushed us all with her next words.
"The good news", she proudly spoke, "Our boys are coming home because the war is over!" We all stared in stunned amazement until a small clap started and ended with us all cheering and clapping. It was over, our boys were coming home!! We all were on deck when the troop ships came into the harbor. You could not hear anything other than shouts and the boom of victory shots from the battleships. Some of the boats were shooting water high up into the air. My breath caught in my throat as I watched the ships coming through the harbor. So many lives had been lost, but here were our heroes, here were our protectors and they were back on American soil.  Even now, my eyes water when I recall that day.

There is no way to convey the emotions of everyone waiting, watching and then seeing the ships with all of our military men coming home. All was right in the world again."

I sat and watched Aunt Rae as she told the story as if it had just happened. Tears ran down her cheeks and she apologized for the display of emotion over an event from over 60 years ago. I wiped my own eyes and told her that it was okay. I realized that I had traveled not just over an ocean, but through time itself. Her stories made me feel as if I were there on that ship in San Diego. Sometimes we wait for adventure and seek it through travel across states, countries and oceans. We search for what can be while sometimes overlooking what was. Talking with my aunt, I was transported back to another time when the world was so different than it is now. I stood on a ship and watched men come back from war, I felt relief and elation, I hear the cannons and the cheers. I sat on my couch and yet touched the world not only miles away, but a lifetime ago. Sometimes I think about the older generation and all of the memories that they keep inside. If we never talk to them, never let their experiences touch us, the past will die with them. Not all of us have the time or resources to leave our little piece of existence, but we all have someone that we know who has lived in a time that is now in the history books. I can get on my sailboat and adventure through this beautiful world, but  what a treat to sit in my living room and travel through the stories of my aunt.and all of her wonderful adventures. Sometimes the best stories begin in the past and when we allow ourselves to be captured into the memories of those who walked in that time, we become time travelers and we are forever changed.