Debilitating Health

I had dysentery. Now you got dysentery three times, the third time the padre had a talk with you to see if you wanted to leave a message for your mother because the chances of surviving the third one were practically zero. I had it once or twice. I didn’t get it the third time. I received a severe beating from the Japanese which led to damage to my kidneys. The Japanese who beat me however, after the war were tried and imprisoned for long prison sentences. I had all the diseases, pellagra, wet beri-beri, I was beginning to swell up, as I mentioned earlier, I lost all feeling below my waist. I escaped pneumonia which was usually fatal. I had several terrible infections which I managed to survive. But I was one of those who didn’t get the third dose of dysentery, I didn’t get malaria and I didn’t get pneumonia. At the end I was very close to, just fading out completely. I was getting so I couldn’t walk to the mine, I didn’t have the strength to walk to the mine.