Carolina Sims

Carolina E. Sims was born Oct. 18, 1926, in Bergamo, Italy. Being the youngest of 16 children, her family was hoping for a better life for her after the war in the United States, so she became a war bride.


Unfortunately, they couldn’t have known the hardship and struggles that she would face. She divorced and though she didn’t speak English very well, she found a job and worked hard and saved her money.


Later she met and married Gino Del Guerra, an accordion teacher. They had two daughters, Kathy and Anna. There were many struggles during their marriage and sadly, it ended in divorce.


Lina worked hard washing and ironing clothes for other people day and night to feed and raise her daughters. But she was able to buy a small house in Empire, Ore., which is now part of Coos Bay, and continued to wash and iron for local military men and other local people.


Then she started dating again and met her future husband and life partner, Tony L. Sims. They married on Dec. 3, 1959, on a quick trip to Reno, Nev., and started their life together. In 1961 they moved to a house in North Bend, Ore., which had a lot more room for the entire family.


In 1968 they bought an old farm house up Haynes Inlet just north of North Bend. There, they spent many years remodeling and putting just the right touch in the old house, from beautiful chandeliers to custom kitchen cabinets which added to the old charm. They were even able to acquire items from each person who had lived in the house before them, from a beautiful piece of myrtle wood for the mantel of the fireplace to pieces of ceramic to decorate with.


But of all the things Lina adored most in the house was the old Home Comfort wood cooking stove. She spent many hours baking, cooking and canning on it, as well as drying fruit on the screens that Tony had made for her. It also kept the house very warm on rainy, cold days as it was her favorite way to heat the house.


She was an avid antique collector from furniture to glassware, and loved nothing more than to find a good bargain in her travels.


Lina was preceded in death by her husband of almost 50 years. Tony Sims passed away on June 23, 2009.


She is survived by her daughters, Anna and her husband, David Humbert, and Kathy, and her husband, Bill Bullack.


She also had six grandchildren: Christina, Sarah, Melissa, Michael, Rebecca and Aaron, and four great-grandchildren, Anthony, Sophia, Erin and Owen.

Hanna H. Ebert

Hanna H. Ebert, of Madison, a war bride and fashion house quality control manager, has died

By Independent Press NJ


December 30, 2009, 6:03AM

After a long illness, Hanna (aka Hanni [pronounced “Honey”]) of Madison died on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009. She was the beloved wife of Harry Ebert with whom she had been happily married for more than 62 years and the daughter of Ludwig and Hertha Sesselmann.

She was born in 1922 in the green German province of Thüringen and later moved to Essen where she survived the massive bombing of that city; her house was destroyed and she was injured. She had worked as a telephone operator and completed her college studies in fashion design.


After the war she met her future husband, Harry Ebert who was a GI assigned to the US War Crimes Commission. They were married in 1947 in the town of Dachau and had their reception in the former SS Officers’ Club which had been converted into a U.S. Club. After a honeymoon in Garmisch, where the 1936 Winter Olympic Games were conducted, she came to the United States. They lived in Columbus, Ohio where her husband finished his studies, then they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Marietta, Ohio before settling in the Garden State.


For more than 10 years she commuted into New York City where she could apply her education and talent in fashion design and become Quality Control Manager of Aileen, a women’s dress house. She enjoyed dealing with many people and solving their technical problems.

Mrs. Ebert was an enthusiastic traveler who visited and got to know the people in 30 countries. Based upon these experiences, she considered herself a citizen of the world and felt that we only can have peace if more people from different countries, religions and ethnic groups get to know each other and meet with open hearts and minds.

The interment will be at noon on Wednesday, Jan, 6, 2010 at the Restland Memorial Park, 77 DeForest Ave., East Hanover. Arrangements are by Wm. A. Bradley & Son, Chatham.

http://www.nj.com/independentpress/index.ssf/2009/12/hanna_h_ebert_of_madison_a_war.html

Veterans Day is near. Honor your hero here

I would like to honor my dad, Elmer "Eddie" Edwards (WWII), his father, Thomas Ed Edwards (WWI), my father-in-law William "Allen" Thomas (WWII), Samuel 'Pink' Allen (American Civil War), my husband's great grandfather. My dad's grandfather Henry Edwards, Canadian - Boer War. Also all those that died on the soil of my homeland, Belgian (esp. Flanders Fields and the Battle of the Bulge)

Send me your hero's name.

Women for Women International

http://www.womenforwomen.org/

Women for Women International supports women in war-torn regions with financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives.
Today, through November 15th, a wonderful supporter has agreed to match every gift we receive up to a total of $100,000!.
Your matched gift will help Women for Women International build a permanent, supportive presence in the war-torn countries we serve by helping to fund projects like the construction of new Women's Opportunity Centers (WOC).

How I met my wife in merry old England

by Bernard G. Owens

I was a wide eyed stranger to the surroundings when I landed in Glasgow, Scotland on my birthday in 1942. After processing through all the channels I finally ended up on Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters in September of 1992. Spending most of my time getting used to my new surroundings in the next two of three months I decided to stay out a little late on the 15th of December 1942.

Upon returning to the barracks at 9 Audley Street, I was entering the underground, which by the way during the war was completely covered with thick material so the light could not get out for the Germans to have a target. On going in I ran smack dab into this very beautiful English nurse in her crisp uniform and nearly knocked her down and her first expression was “You’re just like the rest of the Yanks; you don’t know where you’re doing”. After apologizing for about five or ten minutes, I invited her to sit down on a bench in a nearby park and let’s talk it over. She agreed and about an hour and half later she had calmed down and I found out that she was a nurse at Mile End Hospital, which was a good distance from where we were. I hailed a cab and agreed to see her back to the hospital. I left her at the gate as the guard wouldn’t let me inside.

After several days of frantic unanswered phone calls to her at the hospital she finally took my call and I invited her out for Fish and Chips. We spent the evening together very delightfully and agreed to meet again at her pleasure. These visits ended with me asking her to become my wife on the 20th of January 1943. Unexpectedly she said yes and we put in our letter to the American authorities for permission. On the 20th of March we received our permission and were married on the 23d.

We rented an apartment at 23 Cambridge St., London, W1 and had an excellent landlady named Mrs. Dash whose husband was killed in the war already. We were very happy there and our son was born on January 12th, 1944. After several assignments in England, France and Germany I had enough points to come home, however through a friend in personnel in Paris, I was able to get a six month extension back in England and process all the paperwork for her to come to the United States. I came home the last week of March 1946 and proceeded to New York to meet my love.

From the manifest she and our son departed Southampton on 18 April 1946 and landed in New York on 27 April 1946. We proceeded to Texas and my new assignment to Carswell AFB, Ft Worth, Texas. We had a wonderful and full military life with assignments to AFROTC duty, Saudi Arabia and Germany. I finally retired in August 1970 and we lived here in San Antonio for over 40 years.

We were married 65 years when she passed away on April 18th, 2008 at the age of 88, which was the exact date she left Southampton 62 years earlier. We had a loving relationship throughout our life together and neither of us regretted the encounter many years before. I am now 93 years old as of the 24th of this month never regret a single day of loving my English nurse.

Dora Owens and son Michael arrived on the USAT Saturnia