The Switchboard Operator

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and I was being shadowed by a new trainee. A large, muscular and fit African-American man in his late forties.   He had just retired from the U.S Army.  He is now in school to be a counselor.  He has a good heart and wants to make a difference in the world.  I’m sure that when he is ready, the Lord will bless the work of his hands.

When we walked down the hall to the downstairs nurse’s station, we were meet by one of the nurses.  I could tell by the look on her face that she had a request. As we arrived, she had a smile on her face. 

She had a patient’s room with a broken pull out couch.  Each of our rooms have a small couch that pulls out into a bed.  Many family members want to stay with their loved ones.  So, much of our furniture doubles as beds.  We also have showers and washing machines available on-site! We also have a full kitchen. 

With a smile on our faces we both readily agreed to help her out.   It is Saturday and the maintenance man needs to take a few days off.  I am not the handiest of men, but I was soon to find out that my shadow is indeed. 

We eagerly walk into the room.  The room was directly across the hallway from the nurse’s station.  The patient was an elderly French lady.  Her two daughters were also there.  One daughter was talking to the doctor in another room, and the other one was in the room with her mother.

 A third lady was sitting on a wooden stool next to the patient.  She was a granddaughter, and we were to find out that she doubled as an interpreter.  The two daughters could speak French, but the granddaughter was still learning and was enjoying the responsibility.

The patient needed an interpreter because she could not speak any English!  Her and her American husband had lived in France most of their lives and had come her for medical treatment.

The granddaughter was a college aged lady who lives in Brooklyn, New York.  She is going to college there and flew down here to be with her grandmother in her last days.  She is a very sweet young lady.

My shadow and I check out the couch.  We soon discover that the wheels inside are off of their track on one side.  We pull on the frame and get it back on track.  I have to confess that my large, muscular shadow did most of it.  With that done, everyone was now happy. 

With that chore done, the daughter stands up and thanks us for helping them.  I see that as a good opportunity to start up a conversation.  I am always looking for a conversation!

The daughter shares with us that her mother was a switchboard operator in French controlled North Africa, before and during the Second World War.  When the American Army landed in North Africa in nineteen-forty-two, she started to work for the Americans.

She was a French patriot and was eager to work for the Americans to help liberate her country from the German occupiers!  She worked for the American Army as a switchboard operator and as a French interpreter.

When she started working for the American Army in North Africa, she was only sixteen years old!  A young lady having to make big decisions!  It was there that she met her future husband, an American in General George Patton’s Army.

As the war went on into France, Italy, and then Germany, our mother went with it.  Working as a switchboard operator and a French interpreter. She was still only seventeen-years-old!  Our mom and dad kept in touch by letters.  When the war was finally over, they both went to France where they married and lived for all of these years!

Our mother was a living testimonial that women were also part of the war movement.  In the years of war and chaos, our mom and dad found each other and fell in love.  In the years of cancer, they were now separated, but will now put them back into their arms again!  

Do you have a connection to the Second World War?  Can you tell me about it in the comments section?

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Brother Roop