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Showing posts with the label Real People Real Stories

Operation Baby Lift

  Our playroom and living room had been turned into some kind of nursery.  The yellow walls and the cream colored rug that lined the floors suddenly had a different feeling, a different meaning. I wasn't mad about it, hell I was getting 12 more siblings, and god knows that I hated my current ones.  It was right before my 7th birthday in April of 1975.  The Vietnam war was in play, and somehow I was involved. Well me, and my family.  You see, my dad was a prominent pediatrician in the area, Pound Ridge, New York, and he had been asked to house, and take care of 12 Vietnamese orphans, who were caught in a plane crash known as “Operation Baby Lift”. Our job was to nurse them back to heath, and then put them up for adoption.  Before I knew it, 12 white cribs, dirty diapers, empty and spilling formula bottles, were where my legos and barbie house used to be, and they were oozing their gross milk all over my precious dolls’ hair.  But, I didn't care too muc...

Cries for Lullabies

  I never saw myself as a 58-year old man preparing to go to court to gain custody of my fostered grandchild. Let me explain myself. Hi, I'm Julius Kemper but all my friends call me Jerry.  I'm a born and raised, proud Bostonian with a tick for engineering.  Listen, I know I'm a nerd as if my grey bifocals and navy blue suspenders on my light brown striped shirt don't give it away.  I'm practically a whiter, balder, and shorter Steven Urkle. Enough of me, now let’s get into my life. About three years back, my wife Martha and I were living in Arlington, with our children off and onto better things. We had been happily married for over 25 years, and in none of those years has the thought of taking off this metal band off of my finger crossed my mind.  We had three kids; Matt who was 28, the oldest, and the burliest of the three.  He was the classic older brother, you know, looking out for Emma, his sister, and constantly putting Lucas in a headlock.  Alw...