Transcript for the Piece Audio version of StoryCorps: Eileen Tarr and Ellen Hess

ET: The day that we put him on the plane in the Pittsburgh airport was
one of the saddest days of my life. You were so depressed about it you
couldn't even go back to school for the afternoon. I went to school, and
the day went by and all i could think about was dad stepping on that
plane to go to Vietnam, and i cannot remember many days that went by
that i didn't think about him and worry about him.

EH: When Bob Hope was on, mom parked us in front of the TV set, hoping
we would see him, and that we could be able to say dad looked okay. you
know i remember her loneliness about being separated from dad, and i
remember when she made that chain out of 365 safety pins, and every day
he was gone she would take a safety pin off. When she first put it up,
it was on a lamp,

ET: it was a standing lamp

EH: It actually wrapped around it, and there was a pool on the floor

ET: i can remember watching the chain with her and feeling excited as it
was really getting smaller.

EH: And there were like benchmarks, or milestones, like when it no
longer pooled or it no longer wrapped. you know, and she wrote him a
letter every day. when she was done writing the letter, she would take
the pin off of the chain unless it was, like, your birthday, then you
would get to take the pin off, or if something special had happened at
school, she would let you take the pin off the chain, and she kept all
those pins, just like she kept all his letters from Vietnam. until he
returned.