Lessons from My 98-year-old Dad: Share Your Family Stories

by Marilynn Chadwick

"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong." 1 Corinthians 16:3 NIV

Daddy is one of the few remaining World War II era submarine veterans, and the last man still alive from his submarine, the USS Besugo. “Guess I’ll have to turn out the lights,” he smiles. He and my mom vividly remembered the war—they didn’t take our freedoms for granted. So, growing up, neither did we.

One of the ways they helped us appreciate our heritage was to tell lots of stories—especially about our family. I grew up hearing about Daddy’s submarine adventures in the South China Sea. About rations and blackouts, and brave young friends who lost their lives in the war.

Mom and Dad were also proud of our family’s long history in this country dating back to before the Revolutionary War. Captain Simon Hunt, from Daddy’s mother’s side, was one of the original 80 minutemen who fought the British in the famous battle on the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. It was on that bridge that the “shot heard round the world” signaled the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Our youngest, Michael Hunt Chadwick, loved hearing his stories about the Hunt family and his namesake.

Education was a given in our home. Mom and Dad were both college graduates back in the day where that was not common. Mom had been the valedictorian of her small country high school and Dad was a campus leader and played basketball at his high school, finishing early to go into the navy. He qualified for submarine school and left for his tour of duty, then returned after World War II to go to college at Virginia Tech on the GI Bill.

Mom’s mother, my Grandmother Eunice, taught first grade for about 50 years. I found her fascinating. One of eight children, her parents had died when she was very young, back in the late 1800s. She left home at an early age and somehow managed to go to college and become a teacher. Then she hopped on a cross-country train going west and taught school in various places along the way. My dad’s mother, Grandmother Lois, was another special role model for me, and I adored her. Like my Grandmother Eunice, she also attended college and played on the very first women’s basketball team at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia.

But it was an episode at a recent family Christmas gathering and our grandchildren’s fascination with one of Daddy’s stories that sparked our interest in putting some of his memories into writing. I’m hearing some of my dad’s stories, especially about his time on the submarine, for the very first time. Tomorrow, you’ll read about one of those adventures.