We have many
wonderful veterans among us so in honor of Veterans Day I want to post a story
about Duane’s Uncle Noel Gold who fought in WW 2. I’m sure his story is similar to what many other soldiers have experienced and so I express my heartfelt thanks to all who were, and are now, in the service of our country.
There are two parts to this story so please be
sure to read the entire article.
(Original
story was told to a relative of Noel Gold)
The
first part of the story comes a from newspaper article written a couple of years
ago.
Utah couple goes to vote and finds wedding ring
lost 44 years ago
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Enid Thompson had been
battling a cold for two weeks. She thought it just made sense to vote by mail
instead of standing in a long line at their precinct at Cottonwood High School.
Her husband, Jay, wouldn't hear of it.
"He told me, 'It's more patriotic to go to
the polls.' "
So about 10 a.m. on Election Day, the Thompsons
went to vote. There, they had a chance meeting with old friends Noel and Mary
Beth Gold.
Seeing them jogged Enid's memory about a man's
wedding ring she found during a holiday dinner at their LDS Church ward house
in Murray back in the early 1970s. It was engraved with the initials M & N.
She asked Noel if he had lost his ring and he
could hardly believe his ears. "He just stepped back and went pale,"
Enid Thompson said.
"I told him, 'I have it.' I think he had
to hold on to the table," Enid Thompson said.
The last time Noel Gold saw his wedding ring
was in 1966. He had lent it to his 12-year-old son Richard, who needed a
neckerchief slide for his Boy Scout uniform. During the activity, the boy
removed the neckerchief and the ring was lost. The family returned to the ward
building that night to search for it but they were unable to find it.
The Golds never replaced the ring because no
other would be as precious as the original, they said. Noel's fiancee, Mary
Beth Elg, worked part-time at a dime store and saved her earnings until she
could afford the ring she wanted to give her husband.
"I paid cash," she said, "I
wanted a nice one." She also had it engraved with their initials and gave
it to him on their wedding day, Nov. 4, 1943. They were married at the Salt
Lake LDS Temple. Shortly thereafter, Noel shipped out with the Army to serve in
the European Theater. The ring was a reminder of home. He wore it every day
until he lent it to his son.
Asked why he let his son borrow it, Noel Gold
shrugs his shoulders. "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time,
and besides, he was a real hyper-type kid," he said, smiling.
The ring apparently became lodged in an air
return along a wall in the chapel. That's where Enid Thompson spotted it while
standing in line at a holiday dinner in the early 1970s. The ring was standing
on end.
For years, she attempted to find the rightful
owner, but to no avail. For safe keeping, she stored the ring in a tiny lace
envelope in her jewelry box. Not long after Enid found the ring, their ward was
divided and the couples didn't see each other very often.
It wasn't until Election Day that Enid put the
details of the initials and the couple's names together and felt impressed to
ask Noel if the ring belonged to him. Noel and Mary Beth were overcome with joy
and amazement, and profusely thanked Enid for solving the decades old mystery,
although Enid believes divine intervention was involved.
"Don't thank me, it's Heavenly Father.
He's the only one who could have put that in my mind," Enid said.
As for the son, Richard, he describes the
events that returned the ring to his father as "pretty amazing.”When you
have a silly and rather irresponsible son like that, you have to have a back-up
plan. It just took nearly 50 years for it to come around," said Richard
Gold in telephone interview from his Fresno, Calif., home.
Mary Beth Gold said this year's Election Day
was especially memorable. "We went to vote and we got a long-lost
ring!"
Two days later, Mary Beth and Noel — both 87
years young — celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary.
Here is the second part of the story.
A woman named Margaret Stoss read the newspaper article and
recognized Noel's name. She called the Deseret News office and asked for Noel
Gold's phone number. She called him and asked, "Are you the Noel Gold who
served in the U.S. army during WW II, and were you stationed in Zwickau,
Germany?" He said he was, and she told him she had met him there when she
was 15 years old! She had since immigrated to America and lives in Salt Lake
City. They arranged a time to get together and Noel and Mary Beth spent a
lovely evening together with Margaret and her husband, Otto Stoss. Noel took a
picture with him, that someone had taken of him with two teenage German girls.
Margaret burst into tears and said she was one of the girls. She said,
"You saved my life, and the lives of many of my friends and family."
Noel is very humble and protested that he couldn't have done much for anyone,
but Margaret reminded him of the many things that he had done. In 1945, Noel
and his army company landed on the beach in France, and made their way up
through Belgium and across Germany to Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau. Noel was
on patrol duty with another soldier one Sunday, "sweeping" the
streets in Zwickau, looking for German troops and snipers who might have stayed
behind after the Americans had taken the city.
At one point Noel heard some familiar music, an LDS church hymn. He looked up
at the building they were passing and saw a plaque, and although it was in
German, he was pretty sure read The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. Noel and the other soldier entered the building and went to the
second floor where they found a group of German saints holding Sacrament
Meeting. The arrival of two gun-bearing American soldiers seriously frightened
the people, and there were some tense moments before one of the men who spoke
very good English, stepped forward and asked, "What do you want?"
Noel very simply replied, "We want to go to church." The group was,
understandably, skeptical, and the man was prompted to ask, "What religion
are you?" "I'm LDS," Noel answered. This made the man slightly
more relaxed and he then asked, "What priesthood do you hold?"
"I'm an Elder," Noel told him, which made the man trust him and gave
the little group a calm and peaceful feeling about the situation. The man, who
was the Branch President, then, asked Noel to come up to the front and say a
few words to the group. Noel agreed to do so, and the Branch President said,
"You'd better leave your gun back here." Noel assured him that there
was, unfortunately, no chance he could do that! But he went forward and
addressed the little group of German saints. He doesn't remember anything that
he said, but the people all felt the spirit of his message and they felt very
blessed for his chance appearance into their meeting.
Noel went back as often as he was able to meet with them, despite the fact that
he was under a non-fraternization policy, which should have precluded him
from even speaking with a German citizen. Noel felt the needs of these LDS
saints transcended that ruling, so he "bent" the laws a bit, for the
greater good. These people were literally starving to death. Many of them were
living in the church building because their homes had either been bombed, or
the Americans had ordered them from their homes. They had very little food and
means of helping themselves. War is a bitter business.
Noel would gather as many food items as he could reasonably get his hands on,
stuff his coat pockets with all he could carry at a time, without getting
caught by the Military Police, and take supplies to the members of the Branch.
He said the military almost never got fresh fruit or vegetables, but one time,
they received a shipment of oranges. He wasn't sure how he managed to obtain a
number of them without getting caught, but by some miracle, he was able to take
them to the Branch members. None of them had ever seen an orange, so Noel had
to peel one for them and show them how to eat it. They asked him what to do
with the peelings and he said, "You just throw them away." They were
aghast! The thought of throwing anything away was completely foreign to them
(perhaps this brought about the origin of candied citron peels).
Over time the people began to look to Noel as their savior, and in his humble
way, he tried to assure him he wasn't doing that much, but to them it was a
life-line, a miraculous Tender Mercy from the Lord. Margaret Stoss was only 15
at the time, but she never forgot this wonderful American soldier who saved
them from starvation. One of the older women attached herself to Noel and made
her best attempts to communicate with him. With hand signals and a little help
from others who spoke some English, she managed to let him know that she had a
sister who had immigrated to the U.S. and was living in Salt Lake City. She was
desperate to get a letter to her sister, to let her know they had survived the
war. Knowing that he was taking an incredible personal risk, Noel agreed to go
to her home, get a letter and mail it to his father, who would deliver it to
her sister. Noel took a fellow soldier with him who spoke a little German. It
was surprising that the soldier agreed to go, since he was not LDS, and didn't
have the same feelings towards the people and the situation that Noel did. But,
for whatever reason, he went along as a translator.
When they got to the woman's home, she hadn't even begun to write the letter!
Her granddaughter, who spoke a little English, was there to also help translate
the exchange. They finally managed to get the letter written, though it took
much longer than Noel had planned, and put the two soldiers out after curfew.
The rules of curfew were very strict. The MP's were instructed to shoot anyone
out after curfew on sight, no questions asked, whether German or American -
just shoot first and ask questions later! It was a harrowing experience for
Noel and his companion, returning back to base, dodging into alleys and
doorways, whenever they saw the MP's on patrol. The other soldier became
extremely angry with Noel for getting him into that mess! "I ought to kill
you!" he yelled, "Why did I ever let you talk me into this?" He
had no emotional or religious ties to the situation, and was fearful for his
life, or what would happen to them when their commanding officer discovered
what they'd been up to.
Somehow they made it back to base, but not without some difficulties. Still,
Noel felt like it was an errand of mercy for this dear old woman. He said the
letter, astonishingly, made it through the censors, which generally never
happened. Most of Noel's letters home to his wife and parents arrived with most
of the text blotted out, yet this letter managed to get through - again, Tender
Mercies... Noel's father delivered the letter to the sister, who was,
understandably, very, very nervous about opening her door to a stranger. It
must have been incredibly difficult for Germans living in the United States
during the war! But she received the letter and was very heartened to learn
that her sister and many friends and acquaintances had survived the war.
One of the most miraculous parts of this story was the chance meeting of Noel
and Margaret, after nearly 65 years. Margaret is now in her 80's, but she never
forgot the life-saving deeds of one young American soldier, ministering to a
group of German saints. Their religious bond and gospel fellowship transcended
all the laws and restrictions placed on them by their warring governments.
Uncle Noel recently passes away. His legacy will always be remembered.
