Love and War
A horrible encounter with a rude United States soldier during World War II led to an epic love match between Reddit user McMumbles’ grandmother and her future grandfather at a bakery in a small town in Australia.
“I’ll share my grandma’s (one of my favorites). As a young woman, she worked at a humble bakery in a small town in Australia. American soldiers were stationed in her town as they readied for deployment in the Pacific War of WWII.
One day, a soldier from NYC came in and tried to order something not on the menu. His accent was very thick and she (being a Scottish immigrant) could not understand him.
She was very embarrassed, but kept trying to assist him. After a couple minutes like this, the soldier got very impatient and started cussing and insulting my grandmother, the bakery, the town, etc. Well, my grandmother, a proud woman of small stature but surprising strength, came around the counter and punched that man hard in the chest. (I’m told she broke one of his ribs but that seems extreme…) She definitely knocked him over.
Fellow soldiers lifted the stunned soldier off the ground and back to the base where they told their CO the story. The CO panicked about ruining relations with the town and pointed to the nearest man. He asked where he was from (Illinois), and hearing no accent, sent him back to the bakery to apologize on behalf of the army.
The man did a wonderful job and made a good impression. And he went back to that town after the war. And he married my grandma and they lived happily ever after. They eventually moved back to the states but she refused to ever visit NYC.”