Life After the War

So my father, Roger Lacroix, was finally free after spending six months in a Nazi prison camp. After returning home to Manchester, NH, life soon returned to normal for my father, as he returned to textile mill work. He went to work for Arms Textile Manufacturing on Stark Street in Manchester in August 1946. There in his hometown he met Rita Groulx in 1946. They were on the same bowling league made up of workers from their mill. He and Rita fell in love with each other, and began to date on a steady basis. They would go see a movie together for 20 cents each, or go bowling together on a date. They would also see each other at work and exchange letters they had written each other while apart.

They were married in June 1947, in Manchester, NH. My father told me that when he knelt in prayer at the church on the day he was married, he felt that God had called him to be a father. And he was faithful to that call. My mother had nine children, and together they raised us faithfully in Manchester. I am their youngest child, pictured below in the front row, wearing the blue jacket.

Roger earned a living as a cab driver for 6 years, beginning in March 1955, then later as a postal worker. He worked in Manchester as a mail sorter. At the end of his career, he was in charge of the airmail section of the Manchester Post Office. He retired after 26 years with the US Postal Service.

Shortly after they married, they conceived their first son, Donald. It was not long after that when my father was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He had a spot on his right lung the size of a half dollar. He was admitted to the VA Hospital in Rutland Heights, MA in December 1947. His son Donald was born the following July in 1948. He spent two years there in the sanatorium until he was finally healed completely. When he was released from the hospital in December 1949, he had two children – Donald was now 17 months old and Janet was 3 months old.

Although my father remembered a time in his life when he didn’t expect to live past age 21, he lived to age 83 and had 9 children, 22 grandchildren, as well as 10 great grandchildren, all of whom he loved very dearly. He gave God all the credit and the thanks for seeing him through his war experiences and his subsequent battle with tuberculosis.

He remained married to Rita, his sweetheart whom he met after returning from the war. They enjoyed 62 years together living in Manchester, NH.

I salute my father for his service to this country. I am very grateful to him and the men of the 106th Infantry Division for their great sacrifices in the Battle of the Bulge that helped to upset the German’s timetable. It was that key event that made it possible for reinforcements to arrive and halt the enemy’s advance across Europe.

I am also thankful to my mother for the important role she played in supporting our country back in Manchester and for the sacrifices she made stateside during the war. I am so glad for my parents who never succumbed to a "victim" mentality. Instead with God’s help they faithfully and diligently labored to fulfill their responsibilities as parents, in spite of the trials and tests they went through.

If you have not read the first four parts of this story, please find the links to those posts on the right margin of this blog. There is also one on my last and final visit with him, called Seeing Dad Alive for the Last Time.

Roger and Rita Lacroix celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary

Excerpts taken with permission from John Kline’s journal,
Copyright © 1996- 2003 John Kline

Also read:
A Time for Trumpets, by Charles B. MacDonald.
Company Commander, by Charles B. MacDonald.
Death of a Division, by Charles Whiting

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.