Davis: My mother did talk about it. She was married when she was 17 years old, and then they married the day before Pearl Harbor. So that was December 1941. And then he enlisted and was gone all the time, so that was difficult for their marriage, and then he went off to war as a POW for almost two years.
My mother is also a very hard worker. She believes in education and living life to the fullest. So from talking with her, while he was gone, she continued her education. She developed a lot of skills. When I was growing up, she could do so many things. So many different sports and so many different crafts. She's a lifelong learner, as I am, and I think she used that time to develop those skills and develop the experience as an athlete, doing different things. That's how she dealt with it.
But my mother is the most positive person I think I've ever met. She's very encouraging, very optimistic. She always looks at the bright things in her life, like in Bible verses Philippians 4:1 through 4:8. That's the way she always was. I think probably, from those few letters and also from things she said, I think she was very encouraging to him. Not to look at things with a Debbie Downer type of attitude. So I think that helped him.
As far as the rest of the family, I don't really know them that well, but he had a very supportive family. That's why he moved back to Texas, so that his family could help him raise his three children after his divorce. He was a big family man. That encouragement and support from my mother and his family was so important for not only his physical survival, but his emotional survival through all that trauma that he went through.