Jim & Nancy: Two Paths Merged by War

The author's parents, James Eulis Creasy and Nancy Hemington, grew up in two very different cultures, but they were both from hardworking, loving, and humble families, sharing a common religion, with teetotalers as matriarchs. The two families were brought together by the greatest cataclysm in history, World War II, and eventually by the love between one family's oldest child and the other family's youngest.

The Creasys from Alabama had nine children, six boys and three girls. The Hemingtons from Hampshire, England had four children, two sons and two daughters. Both of the English brothers and three of the American brothers served in the military. As the odds would have it, one of the five was killed in action. Ironically, the two "civilian" English sisters and their parents faced considerable risk of death or injury by simply being inhabitants of a community located near the German's plum target of Southampton, England. Herein lie their stories.