In memory of Barbara Jean Pesicka Sallee, July 7, 1954 - November 22, 2012. Loving mother to Angel Summers Thomas and Lee Summers. Loving Grandmother to Emily Orbash, Jason and Jessie Summers. Gone, yet not forgotten, Although we are apart, Your spirit lives within me, Forever in my heart. Barbara was the second born in a family of 6 girls. Her older sister Marilyn Sallee married my brother David. Barbara was a Vietnam-era disabled US Navy veteran. I first met Barbara in May 1971 when I was home on leave from the Army in Alabama through her sister and my brother. She was 16 and I was a young 18 year-old soldier. Our first date was on Memorial Day 1971 when I took her to a Memorial Day service. Shortly afterwards I was sent to Vietnam. Barbara and I stayed in touch with each other through letters while I was in Vietnam. We talked about getting married after I returned home. But after I returned home things were different. She shied away from me and it wasnt until 26 years later that I found out why. She was drugged and raped before I came back from Vietnam and being a devout Catholic felt that she wasnt good enough for me anymore. I was stationed in Kansas after Vietnam. I tried to stay in touch with her through letters and long distance phone calls but she was never there when I called and never returned my letters. That too I found out why, her mother didnt want her to marry a soldier so she never got my letters. Barbara left home after she turned 18 and joined the US Navy. Barbara was severely injured in a vehicle accident while on duty and spent 6 months recovering in a military hospital. She was discharged from the Navy after 2 1/2 years of service when she became pregnant with her first child Angel. The Navy at the time didnt allow pregnant women on active duty. Barbara and I both went through several failed marriages until we started seeing each other again 26 years later in 1998. She left her job in California after 18 years with the federal civil service and moved to Oklahoma to be with me in 2001. We were married a year later on August 1st, 2002. On August 1st, 2003 we bought our Monaco motorhome and hit the road living it it for 8 years until she had a series of disabling strokes. She passed away on this date November 22, 2012 in my arms after returning from her dream vacation, a trip to Hawaii on a cruise ship.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 16:11:58 +0000
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