Chosen for Greatness by Paul Batura

Author:Paul Batura
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621576013
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2016-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

TOM MONAGHAN

In the cold twilight of December 24, 1941, just a little over three weeks since the deadly Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood alongside President Franklin Roosevelt on the south portico of the White House. Churchill had traveled across the Atlantic to discuss strategy for World War II, which the United States was now fighting with Great Britain both in Europe and across the Pacific.

“This is a strange Christmas Eve,” the prime minister said, his distinct accent echoing into the evening air.1 Thousands were bundled up in front of him, and millions more were tuned in across the country on radio. It was the annual tree lighting ceremony, a traditionally joyous event now somewhat muted and somber due to the ongoing military hostilities.

“Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart,” Churchill continued. “Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace. Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.”2

Yet, just over five hundred miles to the northwest, in a small A-frame house on Newport Road in Ann Arbor, Michigan, there was neither happiness nor laughter. In fact, four-year-old Thomas Stephen Monaghan was sitting alone by the Christmas tree, confused and scared—trying desperately to make sense of what was going on.

That’s because Tom’s mother, Anna, was sitting with his father, Frank, at Joseph Mercy Hospital. The twenty-nine-year-old father of two, a tractor-trailer truck driver, was in serious condition. The diagnosis was ulcers and peritonitis, inflammation of the intestines, usually a treatable condition. Sadly, though, Frank’s condition was chronic and dire. There would be no cure. By night’s end he would be dead.

“When he died, it was very tough,” Tom recalled almost seventy years later. “I remember the Christmas tree with a model airplane under it.”3 The days leading up to the funeral became something of a blur for the young boy. Today, he recalls very little of the tragedy but does have a vivid memory concerning the wake at the funeral home.

“MY DAD’S MY HERO”

“Mother took me with her and held my hand as we walked up to the casket,” Monaghan remembered. “I was frightened. It didn’t seem right for Dad to be lying there.

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