Coming Home

We took eight days to come back and we got on the boat there and I went to a little island and there was a boat waiting, the back lowered down and we walked right aboard. And then they took us to an island and we was three days there. And then they said the boat’s coming, the boat's coming and we all went aboard. Boy, what a nice boat. There was a big Red Cross boat tied up by the wharf, the ones that were sick went to the Red Cross. They only come a while after us. We come right away. Me, when I come back after, I was eating. I went up to a 170 but it was all bloated, water. My legs were swelled a half inch over my shoes and my face was like that at night. And I went to the hospital and they used to give me two needles a day. When I'd wake up the bed was soaked, drawing the water out. But there was a pile died from that, beri beri they called it, drowned your heart after.