Giving Thanks

I always love to share stories of my grandparents and the time they spent in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines during WWII. Today at church I was asked to share the story of their Thanksgiving feast on the spot in Sacrament Mtg. Being flustered by having sick kids and Matt and I trying to decide who should take them home and who needed to stay for the rest of church, I was caught off guard and didn't do the story justice. I thought I'd post the story as it was published in a CA newspaper 20 years ago. Here it is:

When Canned Corn Beef was a Thanksgiving Feast
Editor's Note: Thanksgiving celebrations always bring memories of bountiful feasts of years gone by. Vi Wadsworth of Walnut Creek will never forget the Thanksgiving dinner she prepared 43 years ago. She and her husband, Norris, vise president of Philippine Packing Corporation, a subsidiary of Del Monte Corporation, were living on a pineapple plantation on the island of Mindanao, Philippines, when World War II broke out. They spent 18 months in a prison camp in Davao in southern Mindanao, and then were transported to Manila, where they were held in Santo Tomas prison camp until they were liberated by the Americans in February of 1945. Here is the story of their Thanksgiving dinner in 1944.

As Thanksgiving of 1944 drew near, our family contemplated the true meaning of the first Thanksgiving. Our family consisted of Norris, myself and our 10-year-old daughter, Terry.
We were in a precarious position. We had been prisoners of war in the Philippines for almost 3 years , and our situation was getting bleaker. Fellow prisoners were dying each day from starvation and malnutrition.
We thought about the pilgrims who, despite hardship, celebrated that first Thanksgiving with a beautiful feast, thankful for their very lives. We thought about how grateful we were for our lives and being together. We considered the danger we'd been through since the war started in December of 1941- a year under bombardment and shelling, intestinal complications, high fevers from malaria, my own bout with typhus, and two trips in the hold of Japanese troop transports dodging U.S. submarines.
We decided we too, could have a feast and eat until we were full- a luxury we hadn't known for some time. We were excited just contemplating the event. Norris was down to 100 pounds from his usual 184, and I had lost about 50 pounds.
My husband scurried around camp locating people who would sell some small hoarded or smuggled item of food for our feast. In turn, he wrote IOUs to be collected in American money after the war.
Among other things, I wanted to make a Thanksgiving pie. Using cassava root, which I had washed, dried, and ground for flour, I began making the crust with coconut oil while Terry watched. In her excitement, she bumped my elbow, spilling the flour to the floor. We crawled under our shanty to spoon up the precious bits which had fallen between the bamboo slats of the floor and sifted onto the dirt below.
The fruit for our pie consisted of a box of wormy prunes saved for a special occasion. I picked the worms out and washed the pruned carefully. I cooked them with a little sugar purchased with a $100 IOU over and oven Norris had fabricated from an old kerosene can.
Our main course included a can of corned beef ($100), all of the rice we wanted ($100), and a small can of pork and beans ($100). We had a large can of tomato juice ($100) and a salad made with weeds that grew around our grass shanty, topped with salad dressing made of vinegar made from an overripe banana. For dessert- the pie.
At last we sat down to our delicious Thanksgiving feast. I remember the happiness and joy we felt, and the thankfulness we had for our lives. Norris offered the blessing and the three of us began to eat, bubbling with excitement. We ate and ate until we were finally full.
Each year at our Thanksgiving feast we pray for those who do not have such bounty. And we remember when we were some of those without.
* When Norris Wadsworth got back to the United States after the war, he repaid, in full, all the IOUs, amounting to $500.

At this holiday season I am so grateful for my wonderful family and for the many lessons I have learn from the great example of my grandparents. Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!