“… I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good Luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
Excerpt from Dwight D. Eisenhower’s D-Day Speech
Entering the Caen Memorial Museum in France, I was humbled by history being represented about World War II, D-Day Landings, and the Battle of Normandy. This morning I’m reliving this experience as I came across a short French booklet I purchased at ‘Le Memorial de Caen’ years ago just twenty six miles from Omaha Beach. Here my wife, daughters, and I were celebrating my mother and father-in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary.
The booklet, ‘The D-Day Landings and the Battle of Normandy’ by Jean-Bernard Moreau, was one of seven in a series about the history of the 20th Century. Opening to page one, I read the first two paragraphs. Then, I read it again, and again.
“On the BBC’s airwaves during the afternoon of the 6th of June 1944, General De Gaulle gave his assurance that the Normandy Landings signaled ‘the start of the ultimate battle’. In France, this event, which the population had been waiting for with growing impatience, created an atmosphere of confusion, anxiety and agitation in government circles in Vichy and among collaborators in Paris.
From June until August, the massive and sustained influx of allied forces transformed Normandy into a vast battlefield where, for three months, operations were incessant. After the assault on the beaches came the pitched battles of ‘hedgerow warfare’ and the struggle for the liberation of towns.”
When I came across this booklet, I was actually in search of two other booklets that I purchased years ago when I was first diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. Otherwise, simply known as RP, a rare genetic disorder involving the breakdown and loss of cells in the retina. Ultimately, leading to blindness.
Well, I found the two RP booklets written by Dorothy H. Stiefel about ‘the business of living with RP’. My intent was to pull resources from Dorothy’s booklet to help me write my personal life’s experience and realizations while living with RP. This you’ll read about in ‘Your Story’.
Yet, after rereading the D-Day paragraphs, I couldn’t help but draw a stunning parallel between the tensions during the ‘start of the ultimate battle’ anticipating the Normandy Landings and my personal ‘ultimate battle’ anticipating life with RP. Like the landings on the beaches of Normandy, ‘vast battlefields were incessant’ is an apt description for the battlefields in my mind. The struggles were daily and incessant. I had no training for this kind of invisible foe; this kind of mysterious warfare.
The French civilians ‘had been waiting with growing impatience, creating an atmosphere of confusion, anxiety and agitation in government circles in Vichy …’. The government of Vichy was filled with confusion, anxiety, and agitation. Vichy being the government in France after Germany defeated and occupied it during World War II. Vichy, a small capital city in central France; essentially a puppet government of the Germans.
Like the government of Vichy, there was a puppeteer of emotions pulling my strings. Anticipation, confusion, anxiety, and agitation were drawing through my thoughts every day. This was not a WW II history lesson. It was a different story altogether when RP casted its shadow on me. It became very personal.
Anticipation. Confusion. Anxiety. Agitation. It was all swirling around in that mind of mine wreaking havoc. This cocktail of emotions shook me. I slowly began to slip a bit. Finding myself trying to catch up in conversations. Socially awkward, feeling I was a step behind everyone else.
Note: Next post is titled ‘Microgravity’ referring to space exploration and potential sight restoration.
Take care, my friend 👍
