Sister Sylvia and the 6th Marine

In January I took a trip with my friend Hershel. For quite some time we had talked about going to South Carolina to visit Dick Whitaker. We had interviewed Dick in 2006 for our veteran history project (www.nvharchive.org). Dick was with the 6th Marine Division and had fought at the bloody battle of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa during the last desperate days of World War II.

During the years that my wife, Sue, was going through her cancer it was impossible for us to make that trip to see Dick. PFC Whitaker is now in his 90s, so the urgency to get there was acute. When Sue died in October of 2018 I found a need on two fronts to make that trip as soon as possible. I’m glad we didn’t “wait for better weather.”

When we interviewed Dick we found him to be a man who commanded respect through his experiences and his character. He later gave us some leads to interview other Marines from the 6th. When we made the call all we had to say was, “Dick Whitaker gave us your name.” The response was always, “Where do you want me and when?”

This time we found Dick living the limitations of his advanced years, but he commands no less respect. He is now fighting the worst battle of his life as he care gives for his beautiful wife. It’s a battle that I know too well. After we closed his door it was a long and emotional walk back to the van.

On the first day of our trip we spent the night in the hospitality rooms of the Sisters of St. Benedict monastery in Ferdinand, Indiana. It was my fervent wish to take Sue one more time to see our friend Sister Sylvia Gehlhausen. We had been friends with Sister Sylvia for about 30 years and it was our practice to drive to Ferdinand as often as possible. Unfortunately Sue was robbed of that last visit by her cancer.

It was Hershel’s first visit to the monastery (see www.thedome.org) and his first time to meet Sister Sylvia. She had turned 95 two days before and looked to be on a par with her brother who would turn 100 the next Saturday. She was recovering from a fall and was sitting in a wheelchair for our visit, but she was else wise no worse for wear. We had a typical Sister Sylvia animated visit for about an hour before she was rolled back to the care center. I turned to Hershel and asked, “Well do you still like me?” He answered with an emphatic, “YES!” Sister Sylvia has a way of making a powerful first impression. The photo you see is of her and Sue on the magnificent colonnade that fronts the building.

While you may not know Sister Sylvia, you have benefited from her help with my research for the novels The Pencil Man and Satchel at the Second Chance. All of what I write about Ferdinand in those two novels is from my own experience with the place and from my inquires to Sister Sylvia.

Here is a section of Satchel at the Second Chance where Sister Sylvia helped:

- The people of Ferdinand didn’t need any admonitions. They had grown fond of Cobb. In his spare time, Cobb had helped several of the townsfolk with gardens and repairs – especially the older men and the widows.

Two days later one of the townsfolk, John Fitterer, came running into the rectory.

“Vater Kundek! Ich habe sie gesehen! Sie sind in der Taverne!” (“Father Kundek! I saw them! They are in the tavern!”)

The slave catchers had decided to follow the better roads through Ferdinand to Mt. Carmel. They had stopped to eat in the same tavern that Cobb and Ott had recently built and were considering staying overnight in Ferdinand if they could find a guest home or a hotel.

Fr. Kundek called for the Mother Superior to find and hide Cobb, which they did in one of the sister’s cells in the convent. To Cobb it seemed like a prison cell. Miss Dibble was alerted and went with one of the nuns to “eat lunch at the tavern.” Colonel Gustin was on his way to the tavern for his own lunch. He was stopped by one of the nuns, who pointed to the tavern and pulled him gruffly into the bakery where he would not be seen. He didn’t understand a word of her “French nonsense,” but he could clearly understand her meaning. The whole thing was quite unsettling.

The would-be slave catchers soon found themselves awkwardly surrounded by a growing crowd of “diners,” none of whom spoke a word of English. There were no menus and only one item being served that day, Kartoffelsalat mit Würstchen. The slave catchers didn’t have the slightest idea what Kartoffelsalat mit Würstchen was and were relieved when it turned out to be potato salad and sausage.

Miss Dibble and her nun sat as close to the slave catchers as she dared. She spoke to the nun in French, not wanting to give away that she understood English. She was there to listen and nothing more. Fr. Kundek came later and sat with them to translate to the Germans. The room was filled with French-speaking nuns and German townsfolk. The conversations were as natural as they could be in the situation so as to hide their awareness of who these men were. They were friendly to the strangers, attempting to speak to them in cordial German and French to determine if they understood either language.

The slave catchers also tested the people who approached them to determine if any of them could speak English. Thinking that no one in the room could understand what they were saying, they talked freely. One of them spoke of the possibility of staying the night in Ferdinand. The other one said, “Are you kidding? All of this babble is driving me crazy. Let’s see if we can make Jasper with the light we have.”

Miss Dibble translated the conversation to the nun in French, and Fr. Kundek, who was sitting between them, translated the French loudly to the nun who had joined them across the table from Fr. Kundek. He was doing this for the benefit of the Germans in the room. She didn’t understand his German, but she had heard Miss Dibble’s French translation and covered herself by saying “Ja” a few times.

The people were relieved when the slave catchers mounted their horses and rode out of town. -

In this passage the man who warned the town, John Fitterer, was named after Sister Sylvia’s grandfather. Fr. Kundek was the founder of the church in Ferdinand. Fr. Kundek was in need of some nuns who could help with the mission. The only ones he could initially find were French speaking while the town was German. Eventually the German speaking Sisters of St. Benedict came and thus the grand monastery that crowns the great hill today.

I’ve heard many times that the characters in Angel and the Ivory Tower, The Pencil Man, The Art of Freezing Pickles, Satchel at the Second Chance, and Lawrence of Lawrence are so real and inspiring. That’s because I’ve had people in my life who have inspired me – people like Dick Whitaker and Sister Sylvia.

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