"He's gone, Mother." Liza was crying so hard that I could hardly understand her. "The Japanese attacked, suddenly and unexpectedly. Four battleships were sunk, and over two thousand people are dead. Our Rhett is one of them."

"Oh, no!" I couldn't believe it. How could our Rhett, so full of life, be gone forever? Why, it couldn't be! It just couldn't! The room began to spin as I felt myself sink to the floor. George caught me right before I hit it.

"Bonnie! Love, what is it?"

"Our beloved Rhett! He's g-gone! The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor...over two thousand Americans are dead..."

"No! It can't be!"

"But it's true..." I handed the telephone receiver to him, saw his face drain of blood as he heard the dreadful news himself from our daughter.

"All is lost..." George's face was still chalky white as he clutched his chest. "Bonnie, something's wrong...I can't breathe..."

I helped him to bed and then called the doctor, who quickly examined him and then looked at me gravely. "It's his heart," he told me. "He's suffered a devastating shock, which has severely damaged it. I'm afraid he doesn't have much longer."

For me, it was pure torture to watch the man who meant the world to me slowly slip away. Day by day, he grew weaker and weaker, and the light in his eyes grew dimmer and dimmer, until the dark day he drew his final breath. At the age of seventy years and seven months, the man I'd loved for half a century was no more.

It was a bleak and dismal winter. The New Year brought no joy for me. The losses of Rhett and then George so close together was almost more than I could take. Wade, Ella, Liza, and my remaining grandchildren brought me tremendous comfort as I faced the darkest days of my life. It seemed that the sun would never shine for me again, but gradually the weather got warmer, flowers began to bloom again, and on a balmy day in April, I received a joy that I thought would never be mine.

Rhett casually strolled up to the entrance of my home as if I'd been expecting him. When I first saw him, I screamed because it frightened me out of my wits.

"What's wrong, Grandma? You look like you've just seen a ghost!" he laughed.

"Rhett! Is it really you?" I cried excitedly, desperate to touch him, to feel him, to make sure that he was actually real, that he wasn't simply a fragment of my imagination.

When he embraced me, his arms were firm and strong, as solid as ever. Gentle boyishness had given way to mature manhood, and it struck me that he now towered over me. His step was more confident, his mannerisms more serious.

"Your mother told me we'd lost you at Pearl Harbor...she received a letter of condolence..."

"That letter was mistaken," he told me. "There was another Wilkes there, fellow named Randall. His serial number was one digit off from mine. I was in the barracks with my buddies when we heard the explosions. Someone told me the Japanese were attacking, but by the time we made it to the nearest ship, it was all over. I helped carry the victims to the hospital on stretchers." His eyes grew wide. "Have you ever seen someone who's been severely burned, Grandma? Where all the skin's been burned away and all you can see is meat and blood? I have. It's enough to give you some pretty awful nightmares." His voice became soft, subdued. "Mom told me about Grandpa."

"He loved you so much, Rhett. When he thought that you were gone forever, it was more than his poor heart could take."

"I know." He cleared his throat. "Will you take me to his grave?"

I took him to the place where we'd laid my sweet George to rest, which was not terribly far from the graves of my parents. "I'm so sorry, Grandpa," he whispered as he gently swept debris from the stone marker.

"It wasn't your fault," I told him. "There's no reason for you to feel guilty. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I depart for Germany in several weeks," he told me. "They gave me a brief leave time to visit with my family, to let them know that I'm alive and safe."

"Do you really have to leave again so soon?"

"There's a war going on, Grandma. They need all the help they can get."

"I know...but it's just so hard to let you go so soon after finding you again..."

"I know, Grandma." Sighing deeply, he took both my hands into his own. "Look, I promise I'll keep in touch as regularly as I can. I love you, Grandma." He kissed first one cheek, then the other, and then he was gone. I watched as his receding figure grew smaller and smaller in the distance.