A Pilgrim’s Digression

Last evening, Jessica Lynch was rescued from a hospital in Iraq. I’ve been following this story closely, since I was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and raised in Mineral Wells in Wood County, about ten miles from Palestine in Wirt County (or “Wart” county, as Larry King said last night). Considering that the bodies of eleven other American soldiers were found in the same hospital, it seems a miracle this woman survived. She has been MIA since last Sunday. She has two broken legs, a broken arm, and multiple gunshot wounds. Personally, I held out little hope that she would turn up alive. It just seems like a real miracle, and in my prayers last night I thanked God for her return, quite literally, from the dead. Her parents said she joined the army to escape the poverty or rural West Virginia; how many times have I heard that story. MSNBC had a cousin of Lynch’s on for a phone interview; it was one of the funniest things I have ever heard on television. You have to imagine this woman with that strong West Virginia accent, kind of like Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies. The interviewer’s first question was, “What do you know about your cousin?” To which she replied, “What do you mean, what do I know about my cousin?” The interviewer seemed a little taken aback, and he stammered a clarification. “Well, I guess I know the same things you do,” she replied. He then threw her a leading question, saying, “From what I understand, so and so told so and so who told Jessie’s father that she was safe?” And the woman said, “No, no, you’ve got it all screwed up …” You could tell by this point the interviewer was getting a little frustrated. I doubt he was accustomed to people being so conversationally blunt in an interview. His final question was something along the lines of “how did her family react when they heard the news?” And the woman said, “I guess I don’t really understand your question.” He clarified again, and she said, as if to someone standing beside her, “I told them I couldn’t do this.” And the interviewer said, “Alright, well you have a good evening, Ma’am,” and he cut her off and went on to another story. Reading in the Washington Post about the folks in Palestine and Elizabeth makes me homesick for West Virginia. I don’t know Jessica Lynch’s family, but I know them all, every one, too well.