CARING FOR GRANDSON HELPED EASE MOTHER'S GRIEF.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior columnist

When her son went off to military service during the Vietnam War, Nadine Green just knew he would never come back. She had dreamed it all.

Such prescience didn't make it any easier to accept when on Sunday morning, June 15, 1969, the Huey helicopter which he co-piloted went down.

His mother was told that, buffeted by monsoon winds in Saigon that day, the Huey crashed into a high power line. Of the people aboard, only the aircraft commander, the crew chief and two South Vietnamese soldiers survived.

Warrant Officer Kish Lamont Green was just 21 years old.

He was the youngest of her three children and her only son. She was understandably devastated when she learned her worst fears had come true.

``It took many years to get over asking the question, Why?'' she said. ``I was despondent for a long time. I didn't know how I could go on without him. I even thought about suicide.''

For months she continued to be inconsolable until something happened that turned her life around again.

``Nobody can know the feeling of loss I felt unless he or she has gone through what I did,'' she said. ``All I wanted to do was cry and die. There is no way to describe the pain you experience at losing a child, even a grown child.''

Her world had collapsed around her, and she couldn't come to terms with her personal tragedy.

Then her daughter gave birth to a son, Sean.

``It was two months later, Aug. 17, and here they came bringing this baby,'' she said. ``I had just lost my son, and I didn't want to take care of a baby. I didn't want to give up my grief. I just wanted to be left alone, but my daughter was working, and the baby was crying, so I did what I had to do.

``Do you know that was the best therapy anyone could have given me at that time?'' she said. ``I have always been grateful for that opportunity.''

Caring for her grandson helped her to realize she couldn't go on the way she was. Now, after 30 years, she has come to terms with her plight.

``You get to the point where you have to let go of it,'' she said. ``I finally realized that we all have to put such things behind us and move on. I've done that now. I try not to think about it anymore, but I do have memories.''

The former Nadine Morris was a pre-Great Depression baby, born Jan. 7, 1917, in Elkhart, Kan.

She was still 16 when she married Everett Green in Lamar, Colo., a union that lasted almost 53 years.

Daughter Myrna Lee Green now lives in Seattle, and daughter Karen J. Misumi resides in Walnut, Calif.

Nadine Green was so young when she got married that she didn't finish high school until years later.

``I graduated from adult school in June of 1955, just before Myrna Lee. She graduated from high school the following February,'' she said.

The Green family moved to Green Valley in 1954, then came to Quartz Hill in 1964. She soon began to take courses at Antelope Valley College.

``Not necessarily for credit,'' she said. ``I just took the things I wanted to take and enjoyed all of them. I don't know how many units I accrued.''

She plans to attend Memorial Day services next weekend with other members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3000 and Auxiliary, where she holds a life membership.

LANCASTER - Seniors with music in their souls and rhythm in their bones have some great opportunities to relive their dancing youth at the Antelope Valley Senior Center, 777 W. Jackman St.

Taped music will be played from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and June 28 in the multipurpose room.

There will be door prizes and refreshments. Donation suggested is $1 according, to coordinators Charles and Cathy Sciame.

For information, call [phone].

Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster, Palmdale and Pearblossom have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk for the suggested donation of $2.

Monday: Beef and chili beans, mixed vegetables, garden salad, pears, orange juice.

Tuesday: Crispy chicken, baked potato, beets, tossed salad, vanilla pudding.

Wednesday: Meatloaf with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, creamy coleslaw, cake.

Thursday: Turkey with gravy, bread dressing, butternut squash, juice, lettuce and tomato salad, Jell-O.

Friday: Baked chicken, au gratin potatoes, peas and carrots, fiesta coleslaw, apple brown betty.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Nadine Green plans to attend Memorial Day services with other members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3000 and Auxiliary.

Bettie Rencoret