Letter #41 from Henri Romieux 31 October 1944

After taking on additional stores and fuel, the troopship embarked troops from the 2d Battalion, 128th Infantry Regiment, 32d Division, U.S. Army, and got underway in formation for Leyte on 9 November 1944. On the night of October 13th the task group was attacked by a lone enemy aircraft, which dropped a torpedo that missed Catskill (AP-106) before the plane was splashed by anti-aircraft guns from multiple ships, including John Land.

 
H.C. Romieux, SK1c, USNR
USS JOHN LAND
c/o Fleet Post Office
San Francisco, Calif.

Mary Garner, SK2c, USNR
c/o Supply Department
U.S. Naval Air Station
Wold-Chamberlain Field
Minneapolis, Minnesota 

31 October 1944

Mary Dear, 

Just received your letter today and am sitting right down to answer it. Thanks for the clipping - yes that is about how stupid some of those things are and especially the people that are instructing, if you know what I mean. Now you have me all curious as to whats in the box - thanks a lot and I hope it gets here before long. Now about what you were betting on- I don't think it will ever happen aboard ship. Yes I have been eligible and recommended for a long time now but- you know our Brain twisting bureau has practically closed the chances, unless someone drops dead or gets discharged—there just ain't a chance. Yes its pretty disgusting, but about all that can be expected from such an outfit. Enough for that , now I guess you know.

From the sound of things that outfit of yours is sure undergoing changes. Yes I agree with you about Foreign Service, I don't think you would like it and if you have a chance to get out of the service in February, when your two years are up, I would not blame you for doing so—especially if your folks need you at home. What with your brother in the service — Uncle Sam has enough from one family, let them take some of those 4-F's to do your work.

As for me here all is fine. I guess I am lucky at that when I think of some of those fellows from the University stuck on some of those Pacific Islands — No I would never trade with them. Here the work is interesting and just enough to keep ones mind occupied. However if I ever get back to my old job in the Chamber of Commerce and have to do some real thinking fast and for myself I'll be lost, cause you just don't do such things in the Navy that's done by another chosen group-you know.

Well dear, I guess I had better say good nite for this time, as my mood don't seem too good. 
Write again soon and thanks.

Love and more love,
Henri

Letter #40 from Henri Romieux 29 October 1944

After anchoring in the transport area, the radio truck went ashore in an LCM while an LCVP embarked General MacArthur's party from Nashville (CL-43). At 1320, the LCVP, with Gen. MacArthur on board, came alongside for President Osmeña and his party, carrying them to the beaches for their historic radio broadcast to the Philippine people. At 1840 that evening, John Land departed for Hollandia, where she arrived 25 October. 

H.C. Romieux, SK1c, USNR
USS JOHN LAND
c/o Fleet Post Office
San Francisco, Calif.

 

Mary Garner, SK2c, USNR.
C/o Supply Department
U.S. Naval Air Station,
Minneapolis, 6, Minnesota.

29 October 1944

Mary Dear,

Just received two of your letters. I can't understand why mine are so long in reaching you.
Sorry to hear you have been worrying about me-cause I am fine and there just is not anything to worry about. That Gabriel Hester always was sensational in his broadcasts-you surely know that by this time. If my Mother has been listening to him she sure must be in a fine state of worry. Poor thing, she gets excited so easily too.

Glad you enjoyed yourself at the football game and yes I remember- but wish I had been there so we could go together-believe it or not! For real sun-burn tho' you should get some of this sun here - it really is hot.

Your lucky to have your leave approved and able to get home for Christmas, and I know you will have a nice trip. By the way better make your reservations if you have not already. You no doubt know the Penna. railway man there - he is really quite accommodating - can't think of his name just now.

Well dear, don't you for a second ever think I don't enjoy those letters and keep looking forward for the next. 
Bye till later-

Love, Henri

Letter #39 from Wilbur C Garner 25 October 1944

Bill and Gwen's wedding day September 26, 1944

 

Gwen on her Honeymoon from the
archives of Gwendoline W. Garner

Honeymoon Hotel from the archives of Gwendoline W. Garner

Bill and Gwen "Just married" wedding procession September 26, 1944

Bill on honeymoon September 1944.

 

Gwen on honeymoon September 1944

As Bill began his journey back into the battlefield from the UK, the attack on the Siegfried line began by the XIX Corps. His "Letter to Mary" follows the narrative in blue from the Corps publication, "Normandy to the Elbe," describing the events at that time.
 Finally the attack began on October 2nd, with the 30th Division racing down a long slope and across the Wurm River to smash through the Siegfried Line at Palenberg and Rimburg. The 29th Division did its part with diversionary attacks around Geilenkirchen. The 2nd Armored crossed through the line the next day, and took Ubach alongside the 30th, then turned north to defend the bridgehead. The 30th turned south, and repulsing constant counterattacks, made slow but steady progress south to join with VII Corps and close the pocket around Aachen. The Germans brought up reinforcements from all along the whole Western Front to hold this breakthrough, but all the counterattacks they could throw in were repulsed or made good. By 16th of October, slugging, heart-breaking, close-in fighting against the best that the German Army had, brought the 30th, and the 116th Infantry fighting with it, to contact with the 1st Division, and Aachen was encircled.

The Corps Surgeon, Colonel Rumpf, knew that the problem would come, and when all the outfits began talking about their Trench Foot cases, he had them make up thousands of little bottles with oil and oil of peppermint mixture, with the label saying "Rub this on your feet every day and prevent Trench Foot." They say our average number of cases was low compared to other Corps.

It was cold and damp and raw, when it wasn't raining, and a few days of that kind of fighting was enough to drive them crazy, the men up front. The Corps began to set up Rest Centers. All of Valkenberg was one big Rest Center, run by the 426th Medical Collecting Company. They ran eight hotels, and Civil Affairs helped them to find sheets and linen to give the guy from the foxhole a taste of civilized living again. And the Red Cross and Special Services made Heerlen, the clean little town where the Corps Command Post was, into another island of rest for the GI. Corps Artillery took over the hot baths hotel at Aachen and made its own Rest Center, with the best of chow, hot baths, clean sheets, and even a bar.

All this bitter time the drizzly cold Fall was closing in and the warmth and light of the previous summer seemed like the memories of another world. We made fast friends in Holland, and the Corps Headquarters found a second home in the clean little city of Heerlen, which made a record of hospitality and kindness to the American soldier that could not have been equaled. They had their problems, intensified by shortages of food and clothing, of limitations on their activities, by increased danger from shelling and bombing, but they never let us forget their gratitude for what the men of the American Army were doing to give them back their freedom.

Nobody could explain what the stuff was at first, the night it came in. Some said it was a new kind of V weapon, remembering that we had been the first recipients of the V-2 when we were in Maastricht. But the Artillery said it was a 280mm Railroad Gun somewhere to the south, just lining in on the town of Heerlen. Anyway they had a new kind of fuse they guessed, because they seemed to adjust with air burst, and then bring them down to ground. The first night they made two hits on the hotel where the Red Cross girls stayed, and Colonel Goodwin had just marshaled them all downstairs in their hotel when the fragments peppered many of the rooms. They took it all like a picnic, and the officers mess at the Grand Hotel the next morning was considerably dressed up, with lovely girls in negligees, for breakfast. The next time they began coming in near the station, and started fires in the hotel where the Rear Echelon Officers lived. That was a lively place for that night, and Corps Headquarters ambulance had a job. But it was more a break in the monotony that they made than anything else. The Corps Artillery had the gun spotted and made it move several times. And later VII Corps found the wreck of a 280mm gun in their sector. We may have hit it, at that.

By the middle of October the men of the American Army were taking another hitch in their courage, and facing the grim fact that it was still a long way to Berlin. Preparations went on to move forward in the inching village-to-village fighting to and across the next natural barrier that faced us, the Roer River. General Corlett, who had ably led the Corps all across France and Belgium and to the edge of Germany was recalled to the United States for other duties, and Major General Raymond S. McLain arrived on October 18th from command of the 90th Division to be the new Corps Commander. His was a record of action and leadership that augured well for the Corps, and so it has proved. A machine-gun Company Commander in the last war, he had led his troops under fire in some of the fiercest fighting of this one. He had made the landings in Sicily, at Salerno, and Anzio. He had come to France as Artillery Commander of the 30th Division, had taken over the 90th Division in mid-campaign and built it into an outstanding fighting division. Most of his long list of decorations were won under fire, actually leading his troops, and his unmistakable mark has been on all the subsequent operations of this fighting Corps: in its thorough planning and preparation, its speed and daring in attack and maneuver, its recognition of the problems of the doughboys and tankers, and the constant insistence on the least possible cost of every operation in human lives.
(Text: Captain Fredric E. Pamp Jr (Public Relations Officer XIX Corps 1945)

S/Sergent Wilbur C. Garner 33377578
G-1 Section, Hq XIX Corps
APO 270, c/o Postmaster, N.Y.

Mary W. Garner, SK2c
Supply Department
U.S. Naval Air Station
Minneapolis, Minnesota

U.S.A. "Somewhere in Holland"
25 October, 1944

Dear Sis, 

Well I guess you really thought I had deserted you. Nope. You were wrong. Conditions were such that I could not write. I finally arrived back with my unit on the evening of the 23rd. What a trip I had coming back. It took me 23 days. Going out it only took 4 days. What a difference!

I received about four packages from you when I got back. The one with fruit the nuts, the chewing gum and one more I think. I also had about two packages from Mother and one from Bernard. What a jack-pot. Well it sort of piled up on me so I sorted some out and made two nice boxes to send to Gwen. Now I can keep up with them.

You mentioned that you were sending Gwen a silk nightie for Christmas. I hope you get the right size. I'll give you some of her sizes now so you'll have them. She takes a 36 blouse or sweater. Size 10 stockings. Hips are 40 inches. I guess that's, I think that is all you have to know. Gwen is a good size girl. She is about 5ft 6inches and weighs about 154. Stocky huh!

Well my stay in England was very pleasant. We had 6 precious days together or rather 5 1/2. Do you remember when I was home in June 43 and you & I were in the attic talking. I guess I was foolish & also selfish to say I would never marry again because I'd never find anyone I could love as much as Betty. Gwen is really a wonderful person and I know she is very happy. She has certainly given me some very comforting and happy hours. I know we will always be as happy as we are today and happier still when things are over and we can all be together.

So you wanted Gwen to come out to Minneapolis and stay with you for awhile. Well Bernard & Jane wanted to get a larger apartment so she could stay with them & Harriet wanted to come all the way from Florida to meet her. Well its a darn good one. At least they are all anxious to help one another out. I think it is swell the way every one feels.

Mary, as you, Mother & Dad and Harriet suggested, I have decided to just tell anyone back there we were married secretly on 26th April and not mention the circumstance to Bernard & Jane. Miss Dashiel said she noticed a plain golden ring on Gwen's finger in those pictures on the River and she said she thought as much so. Dad just let it go and said yes, sometime this spring but he didn't have full particulars. I've told Gwen about Bernard & Jane.

You mentioned in your letter of the 8th of October that you can get canned meats of fish. If you can send me some cheese & some of those good old kippered herring or sardines I'd like to have some. Thanks a lot for those other packages.

You asked when Gwen is going to leave for the States. She would like to remain with her Mother until after the blessed event. I'm going to try to write the American Consulate in London tonight and get the particulars. I think she can get passage with a friend of hers who is a Bomber Ferry Pilot. If that's the case, all she needs is the passport.

Well, Sis, I guess I'll close for now and hope to hear from you real soon again.

Lots of Love from Gwen & I,
Bill

Letter #38 from Henri Romieux 12 October 1944

During the first two weeks of October 1944, John Land loaded provisions as well as troops of the 24th Division, U.S. Army. The crew then secured a radio broadcasting truck on deck and, on the 13th, helped embark Phillippine President Sergio Osmeña and nine members of his cabinet and staff. Assigned to Admiral Barbey's Palo Attack Group, John Land sailed for the Philippines that same day, entering Leyte Gulf without incident on 20 October. After anchoring in the transport area, the radio truck went ashore in an LCM while an LCVP embarked General MacArthur's party from Nashville (CL-43). At 1320, the LCVP, with Gen. MacArthur on board, came alongside for President Osmeña and his party, carrying them to the beaches for their historic radio broadcast to the Philippine people. At 1840 that evening, John Land departed for Hollandia, where she arrived 25 October.

 

H. Romieux, SK1c USNR
USS JOHN LAND
c/o FPO, San Francisco
Mary Garner, SK2c, USNR
c/o Supply Department

U.S. Naval Air Station
Minneapolis, 6, Minnesota
12 October 1944

Mary Dear,

Just received two of your letters, and had just began to wonder if you had forgotten all about me. Glad to hear you finally had news from your brother in Belgium, you know I envy him quite a lot, at least they get to see some cities but here it is quite different. Really if I ever get back into civilization again I don't believe I'll know how to act.

So Hammond at last got his orders-wonder what kind of a ship he will get. Yes you don't know but what you may have missed some good times by not running into him before your jaunts. Of course I have my own ideas on this but will not say them.
Surprised to hear about the scuttlebutt about you Waves getting out after two years service - You have something there in your argument with yourself, but I just wonder how satisfied you would be now back to normal with the War still going on. Maybe it would be for the best at that and as you say good jobs are hard to be had now and God only knows what will be available after this horrible mess is over.

At any rate you have done your share and then some, putting up with what you have had to with some of that outfit at Naval Air Station and I guess you know what kind I mean, but you know the censor is ever present. No I don't think you would be wise to go for Foreign Service, cause I imagine a result somewhat like you do.

Wish I had been there to laugh with you and at you when you went to the Chiropractor instead of Photographer. Of course you know I want one of those pictures, please send me one soon as they are finished.

Had a letter from Mother today, she is spending the winter with some nieces of hers in Quebec you know. She is pretty lonesome for a place of her own again and I kind of feel guilty to have left her, cause you know she always made her home with me since Dad died several years ago. She is 74, but seems to be in good health, I hope. She writes rather a pathetic letter, which is most unusual for her, cause as a general rule she at least sounds and acts cheerful, not at all like her to be down at the heels. But I know she worries a lot about me, and the long time between my news. 

Well dear, keep what you call chatter, and I call real interesting letters, coming right along. I don't know what I would do with out them. 

Love and more Love,
Henri

Letter #37 from Henri Romieux 24 September 1944

During the first two weeks of October 1944, John Land loaded provisions as well as troops of the 24th Division, U.S. Army. The crew then secured a radio broadcasting truck on deck and, on the 13th, helped embark Phillippine President Sergio Osmeña and nine members of his cabinet and staff. Assigned to Admiral Barbey's Palo Attack Group, John Land sailed for the Philippines that same day, entering Leyte Gulf without incident on 20 October. (DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER 805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060)

H.C. Romieux, SK1cUSNR
USS JOHN LAND
c/o Fleet Post Office
San Francisco, Calif.

Mary Garner, SK2c USNR
U.S. Naval Air Station
Wold-Chamberlain Field
Minneapolis, Minnesota

24 September 1944

Mary Dear,

Not much to write about out here but I will try anyway.
From your last letter I gather you don't know what to expect next at NAS Minneapolis, so am looking forward to news from you as to what finally took place, if anything.

Had a smoker aboard this afternoon, which was pretty good (unusual for this sort of thing to appeal to me by the way.) 
Some good boxing matches, some real good songs and a little skit. 

This was followed by a good supper-Turkey- ice cream-pie and all the trimmings. You know I think of Lees and the fried chicken - lemon and pecan pie - Do you still go there quite often - if you do have some for me.

Well dear, I have to get back to work for a while so will sign off today, write real soon and give me all the news.

Love, Henri

Letter# 36 from WIlbur C Garner 18 September 1944

When you picked up the phones about this time you'd hear a buzzing sound and the operator would tell you "You're on radio link, guard your conversation." The Signal boys had to lay just as much wire, but this kept communications in better. It was something new, but it solved an old problem.

One night it was rainy and foggy, and there were more than the usual number of German pockets. The Army said all movements that weren't absolutely necessary should be cancelled, but the Corps Rear didn't hear him, and the Adjutant General's Section led them on a 162 mile night march from Sourdeval to Acon.

We were really moving fast, and no one knew it better than Ordnance who had to pick out spots for Ammunition Supply Points well in advance. On September 2nd they picked one off the map, but by evening it was already 75 miles too far back. Major Heist had a solution. He told them to get 100 trucks on the road and rolling, and he'd go ahead and have an ASP ready to guide them into when they came up. He was the man the Artillery looked to to keep the Ammo rolling to their guns, and he never let them down. But he ran into a pocket, and the SS ambushed him and killed him, with Sergeant Zan Hassin, just southwest of Valenciennes. But the ammunition got to the troops. 

The marches went by long stretches of road, littered with the debris of a fleeing army: dead horses (already partly butchered and the meat carried off by the thrifty Belgians), destroyed wagons, artillery pieces, trucks and supplies.

(Nobody knew about it when it was going on, but hardly had the Corps moved into Maastricht when young men of the Dutch Resistance were out in the street looking for the G-2. They had a telephone system, they said, which the Germans didn't know about, and we could call through to almost anywhere behind the German lines: Roermond, Venlo, and find out what we wanted to know. So they were installed in a room at Civil Affairs, with their telephone, and a few maps, and when G-2 wanted to know something particularly important, the Dutch boys would crank their phone and speak quietly for a few minutes, and usually they'd have the answer. It was quite simple and quite unbelievable. Finally, however, the Germans blew a bridge the wires ran across and it was all over. They sent three of the Resistance men up to find out what was on, and they never came back. Nobody knows what happened to them. But they can guess.)

(The Germans had some tricks still in their bag. On September 25th they chased out 30,000 people from Kerkrade, just in front of their lines, and drove them on the roads down toward our lines. They killed 15 of them by artillery fire on the way, and wounded fifty more. The G-5 Section went to work and by night all these refugees were sheltered and fed, and the roads were clear for the Army.)

The rest of September the Corps held along the border of Germany, and prepared its plans and supplies to smash through the Siegfried Line, while the British and American Airborne troops made their gallant attempt to turn the north flank of the German line at Arnheim. The weather began to worsen, and we realized with the beginning of October that, barring miracles, we were in for a winter war. The 29th Division came back to the Corps from its siege of Brest. The attack for the Siegfried Line was delayed until this veteran division could come up and guard the Corps exposed left flank. In the maze of waterways and swamp that marked the borders of Holland and Germany there to the north was a definite threat to the First Army, since the British were turning their attention north.

(For the big operations, and for the newspapers it was a rest, a pause before the storm, but the 113th Cavalry was holding and attacking alternately up around Sittard, and the 2nd TD Group under the tough, seasoned leadership of Col. George G. Elms, went up to take over and work with the Belgian Brigade on an attack northeast toward Roermond. And the AA outfits never rested; they fired their weapons in ground roles, and they had a rule that was unbreakable: never to fire on a plane unless it was definitely identified as enemy, even if it attacked them. The Corps Signal Officer, Colonel Cerwin was finding underground cables to use for our communications, and soon we didn't have much wire above ground any more. All the coal mines in the area had their own telephone systems. Colonel Platt, G-2, and the Signal Officer conducted a very successful joint campaign for the discovery and use of unsuspected communication lines extending into enemy territory.)
(Text: Captain Fredric E. Pamp Jr (Public Relations Officer XIX Corps 1945)

 
S/Sergent Wilbur C. Garner, 33377578
G-1 Section, Hq XIX Corps
APO 270, c/o Postmaster, N.Y.

Mary W. Garner, SK2c
Supply Office
U.S. Naval Air Station
Minneapolis, Minnesota 

"Somewhere in Belgium"
18 September 1944

Dear Mary,

How are you this morning Sis? I hope everything is OK with you. I haven't had time to write you in the last couple of days.

I'm now on my way back to the U.K. for 10 days so don't expect any letters for about a week or so. I received your package mailed on the 15th July a couple of days ago. The one with sardines, tuna, meat spread, and gum drops. Thanks a lot. 

I also received one from Mother, same date. They were the first I've received for about one month. Boy they were really welcomed too.

So you are not to be transferred from Minneapolis. Well if that were me, like to see the West Coast and would be very dissapointed. I like to change scenes once in awhile.
This is just a short note to let you know I'm OK and don't expect to hear from me for about 10 days.

Lots of Love,
Bill
P.S. Just stopped a few minutes en route.

Letter #35 from Wilbur C Garner 12 September 1944

...Although all the bridges on the Meuse had been blown, the 113th Cavalry made an end run through Liege to the south and the 30th Division assaulted the Canal and river lines near Vise to establish bridgeheads south of Maastricht. The 30th Division became the first Allied troops to enter Holland on September 12th. On the next day Maastricht was taken from behind, and the 30th had advanced to Valkenburg by the 14th. 

On the 17th Heerlen was in our hands and a coordinated drive by XIX and VII Corps drove to the Siegfried Line just over the edge of Germany. 

(The Engineers of the 1104th and some AA were way out ahead of the infantry for the last dash across Belgium to the Albert Canal. They went south to Vise and helped the 30th across the Meuse, and then dashed to Maastricht to build a bridge from the enemy side to ours. The 1115th with a battalion of infantry and some artillery made their own bridgehead on the other side of the Albert Canal, and hung their bridge on a barge in the middle of the canal to get it across near Fort Eben Emael. Then the 1104th built that great big Bailey at Maastricht, the largest one in Europe, and we put a picture of it on the Corps Christmas card. The engineers said it was on 190 foot triple triple span, two 110 foot triple single spans, and one 40 foot single single span. Anyway it was a long bridge.)

These weeks of August and September were a kaleidoscope of new scenes, rushing action, and hard work for the Corps troops and staff sections. Any mission away from the Corps might turn into a running fight with some pockets of Germans. We found our Command Posts in chateaux, woods, pastures, and again in chateaux. It was a real accomplishment to keep the Corps together and under control, ready for any eventuality. More than once the CP was pushed into and through a region dotted with German pockets.
 Art created by XIX Corps artist Henry Jay MacMillan

Bailey Bridge, Holland, Maastricht; soldier on military
vehicle guards bridge; trucks cross bridge in background

Siegfried Line Conference,
Chateau Horne, St. Trond, Belgium

General Corlett & General Hamilton Maguire in the War Room of XIX Headquarters. Tongres, Belgium. Generals sit at table in foreground; 4 soldiers stand near "OPERATION MAP" at back of room, soldier at left on telephone

(Everybody argued about it later, even those who hadn't known anything about it until they'd seen the Hq Comdt, Lt. Col. Fosythe, at the head of that startling column of 150 Germans, marching down the road through the CP, brought up at the rear by Lt. Perez and Capt. Dollahite. It was just a lunch time, and they argued for days whether these Germans knew we were there, or just were too 'bushed' out to come and wipe us out. They ribbed the MP's because the Germans had come to earth on their compass course march trying to escape, right in the next field to the MP's, and the medics said they were through being flank guard for the CP; they wanted to move into the middle. Anyway, there were 150 prisoners chalk up to the credit of the Headquarters Commandant.)  (Text: Captain Fredric E. Pamp Jr.  Public Relations Officer XIX Corps 1945)

S/ Sergent Wilbur C. Garner 33377578
G-1 Section, Hq XIX Corps
APO 270, c/o Postmaster, N.Y.

Mary W. Garner, SK2c
Supply Office
U.S. Naval Air Station
Minneapolis, Minnesota (6)
U.S.A. 

"Somewhere in Belgium"
12 September 1944

Dear Mary,

Good morning Sis, how are things with you these days? Well I wrote to you about four days ago so you should feel lucky at getting another letter so soon after that one.
Well, it is a beautiful day but the nights & mornings are really COLD. I thought I'd freeze the night before last. If these pup tents had heat in them it would be OK. Well it can't last forever. I should be sleeping now but I just had to catch up on my letters so this is where I started.

I received the box of hard and assorted candies that you mailed on 24 July 44 just about 3 days ago. It was really good and it kept perfectly. Thanks a lot. All the boys in the section also send their thanks. There are 5 of us in my section and we each one get a package about 1 every two weeks. For a while it was better than that but they have dropped off again for awhile.

Have you heard any more about changing your station? Well you may just as well see the States while it is gratutious. (Misspelled but I don't have a dictionary) I'd like to be stationed out West for awhile after I get back to the states.

I got a letter from Souil the other day and they seem to be keeping him rather busy. I got a letter from Jane, and Bernard is really glad to see fall come again so he can start teaching once more. I don't think his summer job turned out so well. I got a letter from Gwen the other day and she is just fine. It seems as though the navy is keeping her very busy also. Well, Sis I'll close for now and hope to hear from you soon again.

Lots of Love,
Bill

P.S. If you can get more of that candy send it along.
P.P.S.S. Ha!Ha! Don't worry about anything for me for Christmas. It would just be something else for me to carry. Just forget all about Christmas this year. We'll make up for it the following year. Then maybe Gwen will be with us too. So long P.P.P.S.S.S. Happy Birthday, I hope you get this in time. Love