CH 17: Soldier's Wounds Backstory
Soldier’s Wounds tells the story of Mr. McGhee’s funeral in Butler PA, the home of the McGhee family. Butler sits about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. Les, Wil and Fran return home to handle the arrangements, meeting at the Pittsburgh airport on a cold and snowy January evening. The events of this chapter were foreshadowed in CH 15: Fully Meets where McGhee receives mail regarding the dire state of his father’s health. CH 16 fleshed out their father-son relationship with a visit to Mr. McGhee’s sister (Aunt Rose) in Scalp Level, PA, on the flanks of Eureka Coal Mine #40. CH 17 finishes the triad of chapters by going into the mourning period before the funeral to see the dynamic of the remaining McGhee family.
I stole the above picture from my friend Charles Cingolani’s website. This is largely how I remember Butler, though it looks different now. Back in the 70’s when I was growing up, it was home to ARMCO Steel and Pullman Standard, makers of the Pullman train cars populating commuter rails around the United States. That’s Butler city in the far background – you can make out the courthouse poking into the dreary sky behind the water towers. We had a lot of that kind of sky – it’s one of the cloudiest places in the US – but I liked it anyway.
Much of the story consists of dialog, either between the brothers or with their mother. We learn additional details about the infamous “quilt” that got her fired from the rectory, and some other backstory. The story of the quilt was a total fabrication – nothing of the sort ever happened in real life, though my mother did work at the rectory several years.
The funeral of Mr. McGhee in CH 17 is the second we encounter in the novel, though it’s the first chronologically. The first one we read of, in CH 10:Losing Les, was for Les who is present at his father’s funeral.
Geibel Funeral Home, Butler, PA (Courtesy Google images)
As for backstory, the chapter is informed from a series of recollections I maintain from my childhood and young adulthood in Butler, up through and including funerals for my dad and mom. I used memories from the Geibel Funeral Home in Butler to sketch in details of the surroundings and funereal processes for both this chapter and CH 10.
The sequences at the airport and the McGhee house relied upon memories of all sorts of homecomings. As a child, I looked forward with great anticipation to my brothers returning home, sometimes via the Pittsburgh Airport. The donut shop and the stories of meatloaf are particular memories I recall with fondness. I suppose I should note that a not-so-secret side benefit I had from writing the novel was to recall in minute detail various episodes from my youth, even as I was taking liberties with them. Such was the case here as I recalled the war story from Mr. McGhee (some such thing happened, though I massaged the details), and the tale of Viener Schlongka (homonym pun intended). At times I had a little fun with the names, something I can now write off as explained by the Epilogue, but that’s a matter addressed later.
Courtesy Ed Bujak
For all of the funeral masses, I can only envision one church – St. Pauls RC Church in Butler, PA. This was the site of funeral masses for both of my parents. It remains the archetype for all churches for me, with its dark, hulking mass both symbolic and iconic in my memory. It remains as looming and inscrutable to me as did the Castle to Kafka, though at its heart beats a warm devotional candle of good intentions.
