Herman Sattler (1922-2020) Messing Around Somewhere in Germany at the End of WWII |
This is a personal note to my blogging friends, many of whom have been aware of my father's ill health in recent weeks and how difficult it has been for me to deal with his problems during this awful pandemic.
Dad passed away peacefully this afternoon with the immediate cause of death listed as congestive heart failure. He had been unconscious for the last three days, subconsciously listening (I hope) to the Cajun music he grew up on in southwest Louisiana being played at his bedside. He sincerely believed in an afterlife and looked forward to seeing my mother for the first time in 21 years. Perhaps, he got his wish today.
Dad was born on a small farm in Louisiana in 1922 and lived there until moving to Texas for the first time in 1946. He was drafted into the U.S. Army one week after Pearl Harbor, landed at Normandy, and fought his way through France, Belgium, and most of Germany before the end of World War II. He tried farming again briefly after the war, but eventually decided to join one of his older brothers in Texas to start a new life here. He worked as an air-conditioner installer and repairman for almost exactly thirty years before being forced to retire because of bad knees. He liked to joke that he had been retired longer than he had worked at the job, something that is possible, I suppose, when you reach your 98th birthday.
Herman Sattler was indeed one of the lucky ones, but he was also one of the best men I ever knew in my life, always an example to his two sons and to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I, for one, didn't always live up to his standards, but it was never because I didn't know better.
We will miss him.
(Even now, things are complicated. Dad is to be buried in the little southeast Texas town he lived in with my mother for over 50 years. But...the town lost power during Hurricane Laura earlier this week, and both the funeral home and the church are still without power. So, it's still one day at a time.)