Heartache revisited - Memorial Day reminds Glencoe woman of terrible loss long ago
“We regret to inform you …”
The words on the Western Union telegram informing Marcella Rozeski of her husband’s death are burned into her memory. It’s been over 66 years since she read those words on the telegram a Red Cross worker brought to her husband’s family farm.
Marcella Matousek – her married name after remarrying eight years after Francis Rozeski was killed in combat -- will be among the many Americans remembering the nation’s men and women who died while serving their country on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27. She knows the meaning of Memorial Day.
“It’s a day to honor the dead,” she said. “I think about him every day.”
There will be Memorial Day services in Glencoe, Silver Lake, Plato, Brownton, New Auburn, Stewart, across the state and nation honoring the fallen.
Now 87, Marcella remembers meeting Francis Rozeski at a dance in Silver Lake on June 16, 1946. Francis made an instant impression on the young woman.
“He asked me to dance and that was it,” she said.
(For the complete story, see the May 22 print edition of The Chronicle.)
