Claim: A returning soldier discovers his wife has died during his absence, and their children have starved to death.
Examples:
[Collected via e-mail, September 2010]
The story supposedly happened in the years before the internet and email.
A serviceman who was deployed overseas left behind his wife and small children. The family lived off of the base. The wife had an undiagnosed heart condition and died.
The children starved to death while locked in the home with the mothers corpse.
The deaths were not discovered until the father returned home from his deployment and found the bodies.
[Collected via e-mail, June 2006]
I heard several of my friends talking about a really sad story the other day.
They talked about a man that went on tour in Iraq, leaving his wife and 2 children behind. He was quite upset by the fact that he couldn't call him, as his platoon wasn't near any place with phone access.
At home, the woman had put her infant son and daughter in a playpen, when she suffered a heart attack and died.
The husband found his dead wife and children several months later.
Origins: This harrowing tale of a father's anguished discovery travels in military circles, where it serves to express one of the greatest fears experienced by those separated from their loved ones by postings to distant lands. The dread of all parents that they might not be present when their children need them most is given voice in this legend about a serviceman's horrifying homecoming wherein his absence escalated a tragedy and provided the cause for life-long guilt.
In the most common form of legend, a hitherto undiagnosed medical infirmity (heart condition, asthma) or accident is responsible for his wife's passing, while it's the serviceman's absence that proves fatal to the children. Invariably, there are two kids (always described as babies or small children), they die of starvation, and their father is the one to discover their bodies.
As to whether this legend is also a true story, we've yet to encounter any news account that matches such a calamity. Moreover, while it is possible that a parent tending to children in her spouse's absence could be visited by the Grim Reaper, the legendary version of this tale depends upon a chain of relative implausibilities
for the wife's demise not be discovered prior to her husband's homecoming, including a lack of relatives, friends, or neighbors who worry (or at least become curious) after not having seen or heard from the family in a while, and a lack of any nearby residents or delivery people to notice the highly unpleasant odor that usually leads to the discovery
of moldering bodies.
The story contains elements of two venerable urban legends. In the "Baby high chair death" tale, parents who've entrusted their child to a sitter while on vacation return home to find their now-dead infant still strapped in his chair where they'd left him because the sitter hadn't shown up and the child starved. In the "Climax of Horrors" legend, a man's homecoming is marred by the discovery of the many calamities that have taken place in his absence.
As a military legend, the story speaks to the sacrifices those serving their country are called upon to make. Theirs are lives of long absences from home, often including lengthy periods when they are unable to be in touch with spouses and children. But in a larger sense the legend showcases the fear family members in any line of work have when away from home for extended periods. While they're away, bad things may be taking place, and it is this awareness that fuels a lurking sense of guilt — were they home, they'd be able to safeguard their families from harm.
