Henry was a Man, a Marine, a Black Man, and the happiest man I have ever met.
I was in the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego California recovering from one of my life long bouts with pneumonia. I had been in the last weeks of boot camp at Camp Decatur, Naval Training Center, San Diego when transported via ambulance and was hospitalized. How that came about is another story in it's self (I promise to tell it later). I had not yet finished boot camp.
A bit of history:
Balboa Naval Hospital was located in Balboa Park, a huge track of land in the middle of the City of San Diego. The park is fourteen hundred square acres, set aside, by the city in 1848 and named Balboa Park officially in 1910 In honor of the Spanish explorer, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. Balboa Park is also now home to the world renowned San Diego Zoo.
During WWI and WWII most of the park was taken over by the US military. Mostly the U.S. Navy and The Marines. After WWII the military returned the park to the city, except for the Balboa Naval Hospital. What started out as a World War I, tent dispensary in 1914 to care for wounded Marines, turned into a full blown Naval hospital. By the time I got there in 1963. It had a capacity of twenty five hundred beds with a full sized movie theater, recreation hall, and soda fountain and occupied almost thirty three acres.
Most folks don't know that the US Marine Corps is actually part of the US Navy. They are an invasion land force of the Navy. The Marines do not have a medical corps. All medical operations are handled by the Navy. Even in battle the field medics are US Navy corpsmen. These sailors train with the Marines and are designated, FMF or Fleet Marine Force. So when Marines get sick or are injured enough to be hospitalized they go to Naval Hospitals. There were numerous Marines at Balboa Naval Hospital when I was there.
I was sick, really sick, for about a month, Then the doctors put you into what they refer to as, "rehab," which means you do work around the hospital, ostensibly to get you ready to go back to full duty. I found it interesting that rehab lasted precisely as long as you were on the ward. Hmmm?
During the early 1960's there were sporadic spinal meningitis outbreaks in both the Naval boot camps, San Diego, California and Great Lakes, Illinois and the whole Navy, doctors, officers, and boots were scared shitless of it. Although pneumonia is not contagious, due to the lack of beds, I was put into a contagion ward, for treatment. Although I had heard there were many patients who had Spinal (as we called it), but they were kept in isolation. There were cases of mumps, measles, etc. Since there was still a lack of beds I was still kept in the contagion ward even though I was in rehab.
The other patients and I who were getting well would often swap card tricks or play gin rummy, hearts or poker to pass the time after work.
Henry came to us one day and introduced himself. He was instantly liked by everyone. He was from Chicago and had a quick mind, a sharp wit, and generally a nice guy.
Henry had a card trick that blew us away. It used the whole deck and he said he had to stack it. Then he set the deck on the table and said cut the deck. Then he would start this call and response story to go along with the trick.
"Willie and his friends were going to throw a party, so they sent Willie out to get some women for the party. So Willie went out one block." (Henry would pull small stack cards off the top of the deck, look at the bottom card of the cards he pulled, then slide that stack to the bottom of the deck) and would say, "Then Willie went another block." he would then repeat pulling a small stack of cards off the top of the deck. He would do this for several, "blocks," traveled by the indomitable Willie Then he would say, "So I brought you the four queens!"
He would deal-off four cards face up, which would, indeed, be the deck's four queens. This would go on for the most of the deck then he would say, "I know y'all will be gambling, and you are holding the Four Aces." He would lay down four aces, then say, "But I beat you with a Straight flush." The would lay down the last five cards all in numerical order all of the same suit.
We all, of course had our stories of, home, boot camp, High School, etc. which we all shared. So one day I asked Henry why he was in the hospital.
He said, "I got really sick in boot camp and by the time I got here I was completely paralyzed."
Wow I said what did you have? "they told me later I had a real bad case of spinal." We all gasped we had all heard of spinal but none of us had ever met anyone who had it.
"So Henry, what happened?"
"Well it was really strange, I was awake and aware but I could not move ANY part of my body. Doctors would come in and talk about me like I wasn't there but I could hear every word they said. They said shit like he's not responding to the treatment they were trying on me. I was hooked up to IV bags of fluid and nurses would come in and give me shots at different times a day and I couldn't feel a thing."
"Shit man," I said, "That must have freaked you out royally."
"That's not the half of it man." Henry's eyes getting bigger.
"I am a Catholic, been confirmed and all that. Hell I go to church every SundayÖ been going since I was a little kid. One day I'm laying there paralyzed and a priest comes up to my bed and starts giving me the last rights. This guy is mumbling over me and I am screaming in my mind, I'm not dead motherfucker, I'm not dead, I'm in here!"
"Aw man, that would have killed me right there!" I said, having been raised Catholic myself.
Well shit man, you are sitting here now.
"Yeah," he said.
"One day I felt kind of weird, tingly, you know, I started to blink my eyes. A passing nurse saw me and ran and got a doc. Slowly I started to feel my arms and legs. Then I could sorta moan, a little. I realized that maybe I could talk. Man, you know what the first thing I said was?"
"God, I have no idea." I said, trying to fathom what I would say.
"Hey, I'm not dead motherfucker, I'm alive!
I only knew him for a few weeks, one of those brief but strong friendships that are particular to the military. During that time I never saw him, sad, angry, or down in the dumps.
Henry was a Man, a Marine, a Black man, and the happiest man I have ever met.