Family History

“It’s a beautiful love story, and I was born because of that love story.”

            Susan is the most fascinating person I have ever had the privilege to meet. I must digress and tell you that she is every aspiring journalist’s dream. She was the first person I interviewed, and I have spoken with her three times since (and hopefully many more to come). Her life is a fictional novel rich in history, life, and yes, even a classic love story.

            Susan’s story begins a little farther back than her birth. Her parents, Edward and Charlotte, are the heroes of Susan’s tale. Actually, she was not aware of most of their story until after their deaths. She was going through their room one day when suddenly she made an amazing discovery lying in the bureau drawer: her father’s diary from 1941 and all of the letters her father wrote to Charlotte while he was overseas during World War II. “Why would I go in their bureau?” she said to me, amazed at her own discovery.

            I was in awe simply at her father’s handwriting. Holding these in my hand, it felt like I was reading a romance novel; it was impossible that this was real. For Susan reading these letters makes her feel as if her father is still with her. “I cried buckets when they were gone,” she said.

            Her father also took a camera with him overseas, and Susan still has the photographs he took. Photographs of a full square in Czechoslovakia, freight cars, barracks, Germany when it was bombed, Paris, his bunkmate, a Nazi plane shot down… Susan only wishes he had taken more than three rolls of film with him.

            One night while he was stationed outside of Paris in 1942 Edward performed an act worthy of Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook; he snuck into the city, bought a bottle of perfume for Charlotte, and sent it back to America.

            Here’s a little background on Susan’s father: Edward grew up with five siblings in a family where height ran in the genes. In fact, Edward was 6’1” while his wife was only 5’1”, making them a rather comical couple. Edward and Charlotte met on a blind date on Huntington Avenue, near Simmons College and just beyond Northeastern. “She [Charlotte] always used to point it out to us when she was driving to Boston,” Susan fondly reminisced.

Edward was the Captain of a guided Missile Battalion at Camp Drum. He trained in Cape Cod, keeping a journal in 1941 of his experiences. He had to leave his journal behind, though, when he was shipped overseas lest an enemy find it. When he fought overseas he was part of the 180^th field artillery, part of George Patton’s army. His travels with the 180^th Field Artillery took him to France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and so many other places. He even fought in the Battle of the Bulge. “He used to talk about the snow, blinding snow and sleet,” said Susan as she remembered his stories about the Arden Mountains. 51,608 rounds of ammunition were fired by the 180^th. After the war Edward developed a drinking problem and eventually died of cirrhosis of the liver.  

            Indeed, travelling and adventure was in Susan’s genes: her family’s past is but a single chapter in the story of Susan Murphy.

My name is Jillian DiPersio and I am a sophomore at Windham High School. After learning the stories of my own grandparents, I have been interviewing the elderly. Through my research and interviews I have been able to dig up some incredible bits of history from the lives of local residents, as well as learn about people who are the products of a different generation. If you or someone you know would like to share your stories, please contact me at jillian@dipersio.com.