Ms. Jane (Janie I call her) is by far one of my favorite customers. I know that I talk a lot about the irrate people that come into my store (and there are many) but I want to focus on a real sweetheart.
Ms. Janie is an older lady with a sparkling smile and a face of grandmother meeting you at the door with milk and cookies. She spends her time giving all that she can for soldiers who fought, soldiers who are fighting and soldiers who have given thier lives fighting for us. She knows generals, colonels, and all the brass this side of Georgia. There are officers around here that have the power to send 100's of men to war, but to Ms. Janie they are little boys who run in the backyard using a fallen tree branch as a gun and throwing pine cones as grenades; and those officers respect her for that.
Today Ms. Janie came in to ask about some of her accounts as she often does. Whenever she comes in I hope to have a stack of magazines to send with her to the wounded soldiers she visits weekly. Today, I had actual books donated by my mom. Ms. Janie was thrilled as always with what I gave her and she wanted to show me something.
She pulled from her purse a printed e-mail and a little card (the kind of card they give out at funerals with information about the recently departed person). On that card was a black and white picture of a grinning man wearing a barnstormer leather helmet. He had the goggles and all and he looked thrilled. Ms. Janie told me that this was Elmer "Gene" Browning and that he had recently passed away. She said "love, I am going to keep you for a minute because I want you to hear his fascinating story."
Elmer was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 fighter plane. His plane was shot down in Germany where it crash landed in an open field. Gene's shoulder and hip was hurt during the crash. He had to drag himself into the woods with his parachute in tow. When he made it to the woods, he heard some men coming towards him. He quickly gathered up some leaves and began to bury his parachute and himself. However, the men got to him just as he was about to cover himself up. He was very frightened of course. When he looked up at the men (there were two) he saw that one was holding a garden hoe. The men quickly grabbed Gene and all he could think of was that he was about to be beaten to death with the garden hoe the one man was carrying. The two men quickly dragged Gene towards a barn next to a garden. He felt a bit better about the hoe because he saw the garden and felt that these men were actual farmers. The men pulled him into the barn and began to undress him. Again, Gene had no idea what was about to happen especially when the men were now undressing him! They took his pistol from inside his jacket and another older man emerged from the back of the barn with some old farm clothes. They dressed Gene in the clothes quickly and took him out to the garden. The older man handed him the garden hoe, pushed his head to face the ground and mimicked him chopping the ground with the hoe. At this time the Nazi soldiers were coming past the farm and yelling at the farmers asking if they saw an American soldier come past. The farmers began yelling "yes,yes!" and pointed that the man was headed down the road. After the soldiers had left, the farmers took Gene into the barns storage room; removed the wood slats and made a makeshift bed in the wall of the storage area so that Gene could rest and heal.
After several months the farmers were able to contact the American consolate and arrange safe passage for Gene back to safety. He was carried by horse and cart for many miles before he made it back to the American side.
This story was so inspiring that I had to write about it. I dont ever have much to write about but this had to be told. There is much more to know about Gene and I intend to read as much as possible. I just "met" him today and I already think he is a fine American. Not only that, but those farmers were fine Germans to help him in his time of need.
