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Lloyd Linde, known as husband, lover,
friend, Brother and Pa, was born in
Holland, NY on August 17, 1922 to
Clarabelle Allen Linde and Leroy Charles
Linde. Although the marriage between his
parents did not last, he grew up with
strong family ties. He moved from
Holland with both parents, to the home
of his grandfather, George Allen with
his mother in Wales, NY by the age
of two. Later the family would move to
Springville and then to Collins Center.
While living in Wales, Grandma sent Pa
to the small general store to buy a few
staples, he returned only minutes later
out of breath telling his mother she had
to come to the store, there was a girl
working the counter that looked and
sounded just like his mother, more
affectionately known as Grandma France.
That day Pa would learn that he had a
half sister, Betty Kramer.
While living in Springville, Pa would
meet two people who would become very
important pieces of his life puzzle, his
future wife, Bernice Mattice and his
soul mate, Louise Nunweiler. There are
times when love makes a man crazy, for
seldom does he find his soul mate in the
woman he marries. There are times when a
man must make a choice. In Pa's life,
the women made the choice for him. Both
women sacrificed of themselves, allowing
Pa to spend his life with both his wife
and his soul mate, two women he loved
deeply. This sacrifice and devotion gave
the children a third adult, someone to
turn to when Mom or Pa just was not the
right person, but an adult was
necessary. It gave the children 24/7
supervision. It gave the children the
extra love we all need now and again.
 
Grandma France would finally meet her
soul mate, Henry France and she was
lucky enough to be able to marry him.
The couple had two more children,
Shirley and Dorothy, two more half
sisters. Although Henry & Clarabelle
were deeply in love, fate tore them
apart. Henry died in his early 30's of
Tuberculosis of the spine, leaving
Grandma France a widowed of three
with a father nearing the age of
retirement which would soon mean that he
too would come to rely on her. Pa
stepped up, helping to ease the burden
from Grandma and offering more than just
a brother to his two younger sisters.
They have throughout their lives always
referred to Pa as Brother, a
title of respect and love.
 
There were two other half sisters, but
Pa had no knowledge of their existence.
They were the children of his father and
his new wife, Faith and Marilyn Linde.
Pa would not learn of their existence
until he returned to the States after
World War II.
With the United States on the verge of
War, teenagers throughout America
indulged in the sin of premarital sex.
Some of the children would be lucky,
their father would learn of the
conception, marry their mother and
actually return home to meet the miracle
they had created. Some would learn that
their parents had wed, but they would
never meet their father because the
cruelty of war would touch their lives,
forever changing the course set upon
them. Many, however, would end up with
single mothers, or orphans. In Pa's
case, upon realizing that he and Bernice
had conceived a child, drove her to
Blasdell, NY on a snowy February 11th,
in 1942, where they would elope.
Pa did not want to go to war, but he had
no choice, Uncle Sam Requested him for
duty. [There will be more letters from
WWII sent to both Bernice and Grandma
France, listed in the future.] War was
hell for all involved, but it especially
took its toll on Pa. He often wrote home
indicating that he wanted to Go Over
the Hill [AWOL]. He hated everything
about the war. He hated being away from
his family, in a strange land, with
strange people and strange customs. He
hated the jungle, the disease, the
bullets flying by him and the bombs
literally falling from the sky. He
wanted to go home.
He
wrote letter after letter to Grandma
France, begging her to try to devise a
means by which he could be released from
the HELL of war and return home. Then,
there was a break in the letters. Months
went by without a letter arriving, both
his mother and his father received a
telegram. While the telegram was meant
to alert the families that Pa had been
injured, it alerted two of his half
sisters to the fact that they had a
brother. Faith and Marilyn who had never
as much as heard the name Lloyd Linde,
now knew they had a brother. Marilyn
would become hell bent to meet the
brother she had never known.
 
In the meantime, Bernice received
nothing from Pa, nothing from the Army.
No one told her that Pa had been
wounded. No one alerted her to the
fact that the psychological wounds went
far deeper than the physical wound. One
day while at the movies, on the screen
she would see her husband, Lloyd, [Pa]
limping with the aid of a cane. In those
days the World News Reel was
always played before the feature.
Later letters indicated that Pa had
gone crazy in the head, a traumatic
experience had shoved him over the edge.
Pa lived in fear everyday. He suffered
from malaria. He suffered from jungle
rot, from which he had nearly lost his
right foot. He was lonely. His wife was
seeing another man. His soul mate had
dropped from the face of the earth [as
far as he was concerned], he was
wounded, but it was the loss of his
lifelong friend, his witnessing the
death that had finally been too much for
him to bear.
 
As he recuperated, assisted by the
United States Army, his attitude towards
the Army and the War drastically
changed. No longer did he want to go
over the hill, now, he wanted to do
whatever he could to help his country
win the war. Whether it was all of the
Army's influence, or the influence of
one very beautiful Pilipino woman named
Rosie that we all would learn he had had
an affair with, I suppose we will never
be one hundred percent certain.
Pa made it home and settled down with
Bernice. Eventually, the couple and
their children would move into a house
rented by Louise and her children. The
house would burn to the ground on
Halloween of 1950, everything they owned
would be lost. The next move would be a
house which Pa would rent on Vail Road
in Gowanda. Finally, he would buy the
house on the Church Street in Collins
Center. A new house where the extended
family would live out their lives.
As we were growing up, Pa
would have bouts of manic depression and
violence. Bernice and Louise would take
Pa into the bedroom, tie him to the bed
and lock the door from the outside. We
were always told not to worry, he was
simply having an attack of Malaria.
Since Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome had
yet to be named, and since we lived in
an era where we never thought to
question our parents, we accepted this
explanation. As years went by, these
episodes slowly dwindled into oblivion.
During Pa's last months on earth he
began slipping back into the days of the
War. He would panic, swear that a
helicopter was coming in and all he
wanted them to do was turn around and
get the kids out! He had his
calm moments as well, it was during
these moments that he began to discuss
the beautiful woman who was getting his
new home ready for him.
 
According to Pa, the
beautiful woman was overseeing the
construction of his new home, which
sounded absolutely amazing. It was a
huge single level brick house, with a
huge modern kitchen and special built
cupboards. There were sliding glass
doors that led to a huge patio, with a
winding brick pathway that curved
through exotic flower beds. Pa told me
that the beautiful woman
told him she was going to send him back
to his house in Collins Center, but only
for a short while. Then he was going to
come back so that he could move into
his new home. That was basically how
it happened. A few days later he was
released from the hospital, within a few
short weeks he returned, where he
passed, I hope in the company of the
beautiful woman.
With the exception of the detailed
description of his new home, Pa had
seemed quite lucid that day. He also
wanted to introduce me to the
beautiful woman. When he turned in
his chair, a confusion swept his face:
'Where did she go?' He asked. 'Where
did who go?' I returned. 'The
beautiful woman, she was standing right
here a minute ago.' Not wishing to
distress him, I leaned back in my chair
and looked out the door, towards the
nursing station. 'She's right there.'
I told him. "Right where?' he
asked. "At the nurses station.' I
replied. Leaning as far as his wrist
restraints would allow, he gazed out the
door. A comforted smile slowly eased
itself upon his lips. "Yeah, he
nodded before once again looking
confused. 'What is it?' I asked.
'What's wrong?'
'How come you can see her and no one
else can?' he asked. Well, maybe
neither one of us was lucid after all.
But later that day, in his most lucid
moment in months, as we sat alone in his
room, he shared something with me that
will forever be the greatest gift he
ever gave me. 'I think it's about
time you know who your father really
is,' he began....
I had known nearly my entire life. He
had shown me more love than I believe he
had shown any of my siblings, yet the
affirmation, his willingness to share
with me on his own, without pressure,
without my asking to be told, that he
was my father is the best gift and best
memory I have of Pa.  
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