|
For three years Beth Pierson has been clocking 120 miles round trip from her Woodstock, Va., home to visit her beloved husband, Thomas, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg.
Since their marriage on Nov. 14, 1959, the years Thomas has spent at the center have been the longest the couple have been separated. That was until Beth as broke her hip.
While she recuperates for about four weeks, Beth, 70, will share a room, dubbed “The Honeymoon Suite,” with Thomas, 80, at the center because she too is a veteran.
“I joined because of lack of money,” Beth says of her service with the U.S. Army. She’s sitting across the table from her husband and daughters, Renee Kinnear of Manassas, Va., and Rita Pierson of Alexandria, Va. They also have two sons, Robert and Ronald.
The Yazoo City, Miss., native graduated from stenography school in 1955. There were no jobs to be had. “So I joined the Army,” she says.
She stationed first with the 4th U.S. Army Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, before she transferred to Germany.
Thomas had already started his career in the Army before his wife. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native entered the Army in 1945. “I was drafted,” he says.
A year later, Thomas was assigned to Germany from 1946 to 1948. While stationed near Munich, he spent his downtime playing service ball for the Army as the pitcher. For awhile he discharged, then reenlisted. Then from 1951 to ’53, he was in Korea with the 1st Cavalry Infantry Division, 45th Combat Engineers.
Thomas came home to New York by ship through the Panama Canal and was greeted by his family in New York Harbor. From there, he reported to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and eventually, Thomas ended back in Germany in 1956.
And there, in Stuttgart, Germany, is where their story begins. Once a week Beth would have to attend orientations. Her company commander didn’t want to sit in on the meetings, so she would attend. There Thomas would be, sometimes talking at the meetings or listening to the information.
The first time she saw him was when he came into the theater to talk to his troops. One day she saw him and she said to a friend, who was Thomas’ company clerk, “He looks pretty good, when do you think I’d like to meet him?”
“That’s pretty forward,” Beth says with a laugh.
Months after that statement, the company clerk had a new assignments for her. “I was elected suddenly to go to the meetings,” she says.
Often, there would be only two chairs side by side, one for Thomas and one for her. “I had to sit beside him or I wouldn’t have a seat,” she says.
But Thomas couldn’t help noticing the beautiful soldier. He says he was attracted to her, “The first time I saw her.”
And maybe it was a little bit of her forwardness that he liked as well. “It was just the way she carried herself,” Thomas says, looking at his wife.
Eventually, he asked her out. But Thomas was still dating another woman at the time. He laughs as his wife tells the story. Thomas, Beth and his girlfriend all went to see a movie together.
“It was raining,” Beth recalls. “And he held the umbrella over me. I said, ‘What about your girlfriend?’ ‘She’ll manage,’ he said.”
Beth would return the favor to her matchmaking company clerk. “I introduced him to his wife,” she says.
Then in March 1959, Thomas had to have back surgery.
“Was that ‘59?” she asks her husband, who nods in reply. “Time really flies.”
Beth made a point to see him at the hospital. After he recuperated, Thomas was to be sent to Fort Dix, N.J., but she was sent to at the Pentagon with the DESPER personnel and procurement division.
“My boss said if I was dating anyone,” Beth says. “I said, ‘More or less.’”
After a few quick questions— including to see if her boyfriend was in the service — her boss asked if she’d like him to be near her. She said yes.
Rita explains that during the time if women soldiers were pregnant they would have to be discharged. “The colonel was losing good secretaries to love and romance,” she says with a laugh.
But her boss was able to get Thomas a post at Ft. Belvoir, just 10 minutes from the Pentagon. Times were lean then and Beth says dating had to be creative. On May 30, 1959, they had a date in a cemetery on a blazing hot day in Washington. “We only had 75 cents between us,” Beth recalls.
They purchased a soda and sipped the drink while walking around the cemetery. “He still had to have fare to get back,” she says. “ ... Back then you had to find things to do that didn’t cost a lot. ... We had fun.”
By that fall, the Piersons tied to knot.
In 1960, Beth retired as a specialist 5. Thomas retired in 1966 as a 1st sergeant E8.
He went to work for an insurance company for a time, before working for the Department of Commerce from which he retired in 1989.
Beth worked for the Department of Justice and retired in 1989. She then took a private job in Washington and then later took a job with Veterans Affairs in Front Royal, Va., from which she retired two years ago. And for the last 16 years, the Piersons have called Woodstock home.
They raised their children and had kept busy with their six grandchildren. Although their love has sustained, their bodies have rebelled. So in 2003, Thomas came to the VA Medical Center.
For a year, Beth tried to visit Thomas every day, but the travel took a toll on her.
Soon, though, Beth realized that she could rely on the center for his care. Before her accident, she would visit on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays as well as the holidays.
Rita says they were also grateful they were able to leave their parents in good hands. “People here knew them and care for them as if they would care for their own family,” she says.
The Piersons’ family has made a point to visit regularly, even attending church at the VA Medical Center.
When Beth was able to share the room with her husband, their daughters were just as happy. “They were so cute with their matching robes in their beds,” Renee says as tears flood her eyes. “There were so cute together.”
The headphones Thomas wears is a hearing aid because his Parkinson’s disease hinders his ability to put in an ear-fitting device. His daughters say at night, their father would normally take off the headphones so he wouldn’t have to listen to his roommate’s TV. That has changed since he’s sharing his room with his wife.
“Now he leaves them on, just in case she says something to him in the middle of the night,” Rita says.
And now, she says, her father doesn’t sleep as well as he used to because he wants to stay up and talk to his wife.
Rita says she’s amazed that the government can still hold up its bargain for its veterans. She says 50 years ago her parents made a commitment to their country and the government promised it would take of them. “I’m just so grateful to them,” she says.
Beth says she still loves Thomas as much as she did when they were young. “He’s quite a little boy. We’ve never grown up. ... He’s so full of life.”
Thomas is still happily in love with his wife. He says patience is his wife’s best attribute. “For me and for other people,” he says. “And she’s very thoughtful.”
Their daughters are quick to point out that humor, too, has played a role in the longevity of their parents’ marriage.
And as the interview wraps up, Beth points to her husband. “Next time we play gin rummy, I’m winning,” she says.
Thomas nods and smiles.
|
