Love in an Altered State
A Family Tested by Stroke
by
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It was a different time unlike today where one can be anywhere in the world in hours, and everything and everyone moves at an ultra fast pace. Flo and Bill had few choices as to where they would go on a date, and all the choices they had were within a few miles of their homes. It was a time when the person you were with was more important than where the two of you would go. Maybe it was a time that since people had so little, a relationship was more sincere and enduring. It was a time that just sitting under a shade tree and talking was enough. For Bill and Flo, the relationship was now and forever. ***************** Bill departed for the service with his good friend from Shaft, Fats Welc. They vowed to stay together and look out for each other. Upon their entry into the Army, a poster of a paratrooper impressed them. Being a paratrooper meant higher pay and would allow them to send more money home. As they gazed at the poster, they were approached by a sergeant who was wearing bloused trousers and gleaming black jump boots. He was wearing an airborne patch on his sleeve and sparkling silver airborne wings pinned to his chest. The sergeant barked, “Think you two rubes could jump out a perfectly good airplane? Step in that short line yonder!” Bill and Fats were headed that same day to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, where the 11th Airborne Division was being activated on February 25, 1943. ******************************** Mom spent most of her time in Dad's bedroom now. Usually the TV volume was so loud that Mom could not hear me coming into the house to help with Dad's final change of the day. When I approached the bedroom, I could see Mom sitting by Dad's bed holding his hand, like two young lovers. One evening as I approached the bedroom, I could not see Mom in her usual chair. When I entered the room, I found them both sleeping side by side on that little hospital bed. Mom was hugging Dad.
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About the Book
LOVE IN AN ALTERED STATE, encompasses many aspects of the life and times of a seemingly ordinary man and his contribution to posterity. The story begins with the fact that "Bill" has suffered a debilitating cerebral stroke. The time line begins approximately 60 years after the end of World War II, in which Bill served as a paratrooper. Because of his poor health he now appears older than his 86 years. To his very young great-grandchildren he is seen as an old man in a wheelchair. The ignorance of youth has masked the fact that he was once youthful and that he led a remarkable life full of achievement. Much of his life was molded by his heritage and the turbulence of the early 1940s, the preceding Great Depression, and World War II. It is a story of humble beginnings in a Western Pennsylvania coal patch town. It is a tale of hard work, love and separation, duty, honor, and patriotism. The story describes his early home life and family and how he had to quit school to work in the mines to help the family through tough economic times. The book tells the story of his loving wife "Flo" and their courtship and early years. It is a story that exemplifies the power of love. It details the feeling of separation they endured during Bill's nearly three years of military service. Bill's military service is chronicled through the archives of the 11th Airborne Division and other military histories. The actions of the 11th Airborne are interspersed with Flo's life on the home front. From humble beginnings, to a young husband and father in harm's way, to a returning veteran trying to achieve the American Dream, to a life time of community service and achievement in business, Bill has now arrived at his life in an altered state.
About the Author
William J. Potoka, Jr. grew up in and around the small community of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. He spent his early years in a “company house” in the coal patch towns of Standard and Shaft, part of the H.C. Frick coal empire in western Pennsylvania. Bill feels blessed to have grown up in small town America with the strong ethnic values, traditions, and work ethic demonstrated by a loving and caring family. Bill attended West Virginia University before serving in the United States Marine Corps. He eventually returned to join his father in the heavy towing and vehicle service business. Together they ran the family business for fifty-four years. Bill was inspired to start writing to tell the story of his World War II veteran father, just one of many everyday common men and women who are our true American heroes. Bill and his wife Julie still reside in Mount Pleasant where they raised three sons and have four grandchildren. Family and family traditions continue to be the center of their lives.