Weeping Willows

A Request and A Miracle or Two

Chapter 55

The next to come up to the table was Agnes. Elizabeth smiled sweetly at the elderly woman trying to keep her eyes on Agnes's face so as not to get an eye full of sagging cleavage. Agnes smiled brightly back, and Elizabeth was sure she could guess what request the woman had for her photo.

"I want to fly the sky again with my James." Elizabeth wrote down her notes having already predicted this. She even made sure they had a background that resembled the inside of a plane.

"We've got everything ready for you and as an added bonus I'll see if I can rig the new nurse to act as your stand in." Elizabeth told her with a wink bringing out a boisterous laugh tumbling out of her. Smiling widely at Mikey as he rolled her away Elizabeth made sure he knew who to include in Agnes's picture.

Next up was Kenneth as he sat down folding his hands while waiting patiently for Elizabeth to finish her notes up and turn to a fresh page in her notebook. When she looked up, she was surprised to find him holding a picture in his hand already. Placing it on the table he slid it over to her. Elizabeth studied the photograph in awe. A much younger Kenneth was standing in it dressed in WWII military dress uniform holding the hands of a pretty military nurse with a makeshift veil on. The two of them stood in front of a priest as their witnesses stood to either side. Clearly, she was looking at his wedding photo the day he was married. The couple made quite the dapper pair too even if it wasn't a traditional wedding. Looking up into Kenneth's eyes she waited for him to tell her what he wanted.

"All I want is to have a normal wedding. I met Rose when I was wounded during a firefight and brought to the makeshift hospital near our base. She was kind and caring but didn't take any nonsense from anyone. Even being hurt and in pain I couldn't help seeing the pure goodness that she glowed with. After I was fixed up and sent on my way, I kept thinking back to the nurse that took care of me. I started volunteering to be the one to take any wounded in just so I could see her though I had no idea how to talk to her other than to convey what had happened to each solider. With every trip to the hospital I also noticed how many soldiers were chasing after her which made me even more reluctant to talk to her. I didn't want her thinking I was like all the other guys and instead was content just see her work and confirm that she was doing alright. As time went on, she began to talk to me. It was never more of a conversation than just a few sentences, but it was more than enough for me. A year after I had first met her, I was wounded again only worse than just a flesh wound. I was told that when they brought me in, she was beside herself with worry. When I woke up a couple days later, she verbally laid into me she was spitting mad. She said if I wanted to spend time with her that was not the way to go about it. I was horrified that she thought I would hurt myself on purpose so naturally I rushed to assure her it hadn't been intentional. She stood there glaring at me as I was tripping all over myself to explain what had happened. I didn't even get to finish before she threw my pillow at me and asked me when I was going to ask her out already. I sat there completely out of sorts as she huffed off."

"So, did you ask her out?" Elizabeth asked being unable to help herself. Kenneth laughed as he thought about the memory.

"No, I didn't. At least not right away but I did start picking her wildflowers and bringing those with every time I brought in a new wounded. I think she was getting overly exasperated with me at that point, but I was trying to woo her the best that I could at the time. When I finally did gather up the courage to ask her out, she threw her hands up in the air and said 'finally' before she turned around and walked away from me. I was so confused I had no idea if she had said yes or not. It took me another few days to get up the courage to ask her but she confirmed it was a yes. That night I showed up with a cheap bottle of wine and we sat on a broken cement wall and looked at the stars as we drank bad wine and talked about our lives before the war. We were surprised to find we grew up two towns away from each other. Within a few months we decided to get married. We had discussed waiting until after the war so our families could attend but in such a vicious war where we had both seen how suddenly life could end, we made the choice to do it then. We didn't want to risk one or both of us dying before we got to become husband and wife. We didn't even discuss it with our families until afterward. My life with Rose were some of the happiest times I've lived and while I wouldn't change marrying her, I have always wished that we could have met under better circumstances and had a proper wedding."