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msmercury84 · 2 years ago

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"I Double Dare You" "Filming 'The Breaking Point.'"

*For the hbowardaily Bobweek2023 writing challenge Day 7 Crossover*

*Author's note: The account of how Bill Guarnere got down a ladder came from the book he wrote with Babe Heffron. Guarnere never considered himself handicapped, that fact has been stated by his granddaughter. Bill described the way he felt in Bastogne (due to the weather) in an online interview.

Guarnere's account of the events of January 3, 1945 came from his book. I used his dialect instead of writing the quotes as they appeared in the book.

Bill told his portrayer that men like those in Easy Company still existed. When the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place, he called Hughes to tell him,

"You see those men goin' into those buildings? I told ya there were men around who would do the right thing just like we done back in the war." The information Bill gave Frank John Hughes about the condition of his leg came from a 20th anniversary commemoration of the movie that was a podcast.

Bill had a room filled with eagle figurines, etc. in his home. Frannie Guarnere made two rugs with eagles in the pattern. The story about the one legged stuffed toy eagle is true. I found it at a website with Easy Company reunion pictures.

The story about Babe came from a podcast with Bill's granddaughter Debi and her father, Gene. Debi nicknamed Bill and Babe, "Grumpy and Stumpy. Bill got a laugh out of his nickname. I don't know what Babe's reaction was to " Grumpy."*

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London outskirts, the late 1990s

Bill, Leigh and Babe were flown to London and housed in The Ritz. All expenses were paid by HBO. Tom Hanks wanted Guarnere 's and Heffron's opinions about the accuracy with which the episodes "Bastogne" and "The Breaking Point" were filmed. Bill asked Leigh to accompany him on the trip.

Leigh wore her hair a few inches shorter. It was white and still curly, but she preferred to have it styled so it appeared silky in texture. She still wore makeup and nail polish and appeared about ten years younger than her chronological age. Leigh also exercised and kept a watchful eye on her figure.

Bill's thick black hair was white and he was still strikingly handsome. Using the crutches had given him very muscular arms and he was still a very strong man. He was about five to ten pounds over his usual weight, but he looked good.

Guarnere credited his slight weight gain to his wife's culinary skills. He sometimes favored wearing jeans instead of trousers and a variety of T-shirts with pictures of eagles on them. Bill also wore either dress shirts or polo type shirts with a bolo tie that had the logo of the 101st Airborne Association on it.

Bill collected figurines, stuffed toys, framed pictures and paintings of eagles. One stuffed toy eagle had its right leg missing. Someone at an Easy Company reunion altered the toy's appearance before giving it to Guarnere. He commented on how it looked like him and it became one of his favorite items on display.

Billy's former bedroom was turned into the place where all of the eagle memorabilia was displayed on shelves he built. Leigh made two rugs and a few counted cross stitch pictures of eagles that he proudly displayed. One eagle hooked rug she made had a permanent place of honor in the living room.

He would sometimes tell visitors to his and Leigh's home,

"Go upstairs to the first room on your right if ya wanna see the eagles. There's so many of 'em that they'll knock your eyes out."

Babe had lost some of his hair and gained some extra weight over the years. He could be charming, singing a few stanzas of an Irish folk song, "Bridget O'Flynn, where have you been, Bridget O'Flynn?" on a newspaper reporter's answering machine. Other times, he could be an irritable curmudgeon.

During a trip to New Orleans with Bill, granddaughters T.J. (Teresa Julia) and Maria, Babe wanted to stay in his hotel room and order room service. T.J. and her sister insisted that Babe accompany them and their grandpop to a restaurant.

When a waitress asked if anyone wanted to order drinks, Heffron stood up and kicked a nearby table over before leaving the restaurant to call a cab to take him to the hotel. When his Teresa and Maria expressed being embarrassed by Babe's behavior, Bill told his granddaughters,

"Ya shouldn't have made him come wit' us."

Heffron also enjoyed wearing jackets with either the Screaming Eagle or 101st Airborne embroidered on it. He was fond of using an old saying from the 1940s, "Oh, my achin' back." Babe loved to sing, his favorite song was, "I'll Be Seeing You."

The newspaper reporter to whom he sang "Bridget O'Flynn" said in a feature article she had written about Guarnere and Heffron, that he delivered "A Broadway caliber performance" of his favorite song. Her article was the genesis of the book written by Bill and Babe.

During a trip to Hatfield, England, Guarnere met the actors for the first time, Bill told Tom Hanks and Hughes the story of how he rescued Joe Toye. Guarnere had never spoken about the incident with Leigh for obvious reasons and he never discussed it with any family members.

Bill told both men,

"War is, plain an' simple, hell. A situation like Bastogne, ya feel helpless. Where's the rest o' the Army? Where's the ammunition, where's the food, where are the clothes, what the hell is goin' on?

You don't know you're in the middle o' the largest, bloodiest land battle in history. Ya find that out later. The men who weren't in leadership positions, they could let their guard down, some cried. In Bastogne, your tears would freeze. I done more prayin' than anythin' else."

He told Hanks and Hughes about the brutal living conditions due to the weather, the enemy and the lack of food.

"I don't even remember when I ate, how I ate, or what I ate. We were so damn cold an' frozen that my priority after stayin' alive was keepin' warm. Sometimes I'd realize, hey, I haven't eaten in a day or two, I'm hungry. I looked around an' grabbed whatever I could. Somebody always had somethin', an' they shared it.

We were able to make coffee usin' Sternos. It's a little can about two or three inches deep, ya take the top off an' put a match to it, an' it makes a little blue flame, so you could take some snow an' make coffee.

Most o' the time we drank the fluid in the Sterno, it had alcohol in it, so we took a swig. I don't know what the hell it was, but we drank it! It didn't kill us, did it? If ya had a tea bag, you could make tea, or we melted chocolate. That was a treat. And how!"

Then, Guarnere began his story of the events of January 3, 1945. Both Tom and Frank paid rapt attention to Bill as he said,

"The Germans started poundin' us wit' artillery. When you got an artillery bombardment, shells went screamin' over your head, you dove into a foxhole an' crouched down as low as ya could. The shellin' was unbearable. Never saw so many shells in my life. It was Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground, dirt, snow, body parts, blood, goes shootin' up all around you. The ground shook like an earthquake, worse than an earthquake. The noise made ya deaf. You can't believe you're still alive. If you're a sergeant, you have to make sure the men are in their foxholes, an' then ya take cover.

The Germans had us zeroed in. It was horrendous, there's no way to describe it. Shells were hittin' all over the place an' everybody was runnin' to get into a foxhole, anybody's foxhole. Guys were gettin' hit, screamin', hollerin' for medics all over the woods, an' there were very few medics around, ya understand?

Joe Toye was runnin' around tryin' to get everyone to take cover. Next thing I know, Joe Toye is hollerin', 'I'm hit, I'm hit!' I looked up an' he was lyin' on the ground about six to eight feet away from me. His leg was blown to bits. He was bleedin' all over-from the chest, back, head, arms, legs. I thought he was dead.

I ran out to try an' get him to safety. As soon as I got to him, Wham! A tree burst exploded over our heads. I was hit. I fell next to Joe. I felt like I was on fire, like someone took a sizzlin' hot poker an' was burnin' me. I thought I was dead. My right leg was full o' shrapnel.

I went from burnin' hot to freezin'. Me an' Joe lay there freezin' in the snow, shiverin', bleedin', both of us were full o' shrapnel. He said, 'Jesus Christ, what the hell do I have to do to die?' It was Joe's fifth time hit. Lipton, Malarkey an' Babe came runnin' over to help, I was half out o' it. Doc Roe was right there, tryin' to patch us up. Wit'out him, we wouldn't be alive. They put me on a stretcher before Joe, I said, 'I told ya I'd beat ya back to the States,' an' then I passed out."

Both Hanks and Hughes were deeply moved by the story. Bill wasn't upset, feeling that the event was, in his words, "Ancient history." Then, Guarnere described the day after he was seriously injured, telling Tom and Frank,

"They took me to Bastogne and medics tried to get out the shrapnel as best they could an' stop the bleedin'. Thanks to the medics, I got out alive. I think the cold weather coagulated your blood, otherwise, we both woulda bled to death. I was in extreme pain from all o' the shrapnel dug into my body.

They couldn't get the wounded out to hospitals, we were still surrounded. We were out in the open, on stretchers in a churchyard somewhere; we couldn't keep warm. I was sure I wasn't gonna make it. I started thinkin' about my mother, father, Leigh an' my brothers an' sisters.

I wondered, 'Who's gonna tell 'em I'm dead?' So many thoughts go through your mind. I thought o' Henry. Ma and Pop losin' two sons. It was almost a year to the day Henry died. The next day, I woke up an' thought, 'Good, I'm still here.' It took three or four days before they were able to push the Germans away an' get us out.I was sent to a hospital in Paris."

Then, Bill told Hanks and Hughes about waking up and seeing Leigh sitting in a chair beside his bed.

"I asked her, 'Baby, am I dreamin' or are ya really here?' They gave me morphine, an' I was still kinda out o' it wit' the anesthesia. It made me feel a little bit stronger knowin' Leigh was there for me.

Then, she decided to ask a nurse if she could cook for me an' bring the food in. The nurse said I'd probably gain weight faster if I had somethin' I liked to eat, so she told Leigh it was OK to cook an' bring in the food.

From that point until I left the hospital in Scotland, she cooked two meals a day for me an' brought 'em in every day, even in terrible weather. I told her I would eat what the hospital served for breakfast. Hell, after nearly starvin', even hospital food tasted good.

At first, I didn't want my baby in that (he pronounced the word as 'dat') hospital. Those military hospitals had horrifyin' sights an' smells. I'll never forget the smell of burned flesh. I thought it would be more than she could take." Guarnere chuckled,

"She looked me right in my eyes an' said, 'Bill, General Patton himself couldn't keep me out of this hospital. I'm not leaving you by yourself in here.'" Tom and Frank smiled when they heard this. Hanks started to plan a chapter about Bill and his songbird.

One morning, a driver with a limousine picked up the former Easy Company soldiers and Leigh at the hotel. They were driven to a large hangar on the outskirts of London.

The interior of the hangar had been painstakingly transformed into the Bois Jacques. A few tons of shredded paper made realistic looking snow. Pine trees were constructed on the set and they were made of fiberglass and wood.

Bill, Babe and Leigh were escorted inside by security officers. Both men were momentarily taken aback by the extremely accurate depiction of Bois Jacques. The hangar was very warm due to the lights used in film making, but Guarnere and Heffron felt a slight chill for an instant. Bill told Babe,

"The only thing missin' is the cold an' the noise from the Krauts shellin' us." Heffron agreed,

"Get a load of those trees, ain't they just like the real things? Holy God, they even have some that got hit with tree bursts." Leigh was taking in the entire scene. She noticed mannequins depicting dead, frozen German soldiers and cringed a bit, finding them entirely too lifelike.

Hanks shook hands with the Guarneres and Babe. Bill and Babe made an earlier trip to help with the filming of the episodes in Normandy and they were well acquainted with Tom Hanks. He told Leigh,

"Mrs. Guarnere, we're getting set up to film some battle scenes for Episode 6. Tomorrow, we're shooting the scene in which your husband is injured during his rescue of Joe Toye. You're more than welcome to attend. Are you up to seeing the scene? I don't want it to be too upsetting for you."

"I honestly don't know how I'll respond. Don't worry, I'm in excellent health and there's no chance of me collapsing due to a heart attack or a stroke. It will probably be emotionally jarring. I obviously wasn't there when Bill lost his leg. I saw him in the hospital after he had his first surgery." Hanks apologized for implying that Leigh was too frail to withstand the emotional scene.

"Mr. Hanks, there's no need to apologize."

"Mrs. Guarnere, please, call me Tom. I understand that you cooked for Bill and brought him food twice a day when he was recovering. Given the way you met your husband and your role as the Songbird of the 506th, I think there's enough about you to warrant another chapter in the movie." Leigh told Hanks that while she found it flattering that someone would find her story interesting, she added,

"Please don't make that part of the movie. I'm a microscopic part of this. I don't want to take anything away from the telling of Easy Company's story." Tom Hanks respected Leigh's wishes, but he deeply regretted not adding an additional chapter to the movie that told the story of Guarnere and his songbird."

Some of the actors portraying the men of Easy showed up early to see Bill and Babe. They met the men during the time the episodes set in Normandy were shot and the actors immensely enjoyed spending time with the men Tom Hanks called, "My boys from South Philadelphia."

Hanks had briefly spoken with the actors, telling them that Bill Guarnere's wife Leigh was on the set. He told them where she was located in the hangar and some of the men wanted to meet her.

Leigh was surprised at the resemblance of the actors to the men they portrayed. She gasped at the sight of Kirk Acevedo in costume as Joe Toye. After introducing himself to her, Acevedo said,

"I hope I didn't cause you to relive anything painful connected to Mr. Toye." Leigh assured him that she was fine,

"It's striking how much you resemble Joe. He was a good friend and Joe was one of Bill's groomsmen at our wedding." She also told Kirk about Bill and Joe racing each other in wheelchairs in the Atlantic City military hospital. Acevedo thought that a scene showing Joe and Bill racing each other in wheelchairs should be included in the movie. Ron Livingston was next to introduce himself to Leigh. He said,

"Mrs. Guarnere, you look as if you've seen a ghost."

"You look so much like Nix that it's almost eerie. He is the one who told me about Bill being seriously injured. Nix looked out for me, ensuring that I had a hotel room and something to eat. Lewis took me to the American Hospital to see Bill after his first surgery." When Ron asked about Nixon's personality, Leigh laughed,

"On occasion, Lewis could be a tiny bit of a snob. When we were speaking to a receptionist in the American Hospital in Paris, he seemed surprised that I spoke fluent French.

I deliberately spoke French to show him that he wasn't the only intellectual in the room." Livingston laughed and Leigh continued, "I'm guessing that the image of a woman with a few years of college was incongruous with his unsaid, but palpable feeling that he found Bill a bit too low brow for his tastes.

Nothing was ever mentioned and Nix did genuinely care about Bill. He was a good man, and very complex. There was an emotional detachment about him. Lewis comforted me after he gave me the news about Bill and he seemed to be sort of stiff and uncomfortable.

You've heard without a doubt about Nix always having his flask of whiskey with him. Before leaving my dressing room, I asked if he had the flask and I drank a little bit of the Vat 69 to give me some liquid courage. I was so upset that I nearly left my purse behind. Lewis grabbed it up and brought it with him." Livingston thanked Leigh for her insights regarding Nixon.

Damian Lewis grinned as he introduced himself to Leigh.

"It's an honor to meet the Songbird of the 506th. I heard the recording of you and the Andrews Sisters. You're a fabulously talented woman." Leigh thanked him,

"It's as if I'm talking to the 1940s version of Dick Winters. You even sound a bit like him." Lewis asked her, using his natural British accent,

"Do I still sound like him now?"

"It's amazing how much you learned to sound like him. Dick caught my garter at our wedding and he blushed. He is the one who told me about the USO audition. As you are undoubtedly aware, he's a wonderful man and he was an excellent, natural born leader." Damian shook hands with Leigh, telling her,

"It's been a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Guarnere." Rick Gomez was next in line. Tears came to Leigh's eyes as she told him,

"George Luz was a very dear friend. You look quite a bit like him." When Gomez asked if she had any good stories about Luz, Leigh made Rick laugh as she told about George Luz getting the false eyelashes stuck on his eyes, the impressions he did and the reactions of Luz's buddies to his predicament.

Then, Dale Dye approached Leigh. He shook hands with her and introduced himself.

"I know who you are. It seems as if I'm talking with my former boss again." Dye wanted to know more about Colonel Sink and Leigh told him about Sink bringing the champagne for the attendees at the impromptu gathering at the NCO Club and the way he came to her defense when Captain Sobel lost his temper.

She also told of how the colonel was the one to tell her about getting the gig with the Andrews Sisters and the way he seemed to regard her as a daughter.

A young man wearing an Army fatigue jacket, a black t-shirt, jeans, a New York Yankees baseball cap, wire framed glasses and sneakers was next in line. He had black hair, a scruffy black beard (grown for filming both Bastogne episodes) and blue eyes. The young man shook hands with her,

"Mrs. Guarnere, my name is Frank John Hughes and I'm honored to play the part of your husband." He paused, adding in Bill's dialect,

"So, whadda ya think, Doll? Do I sound like him?" Leigh smiled,

"Yes, you sound exactly like Bill. My husband thinks very highly of you and he's enjoyed talking with you." Guarnere also told the actor, during one of their many telephone conversations, about the strip of muscle that connected his mangled leg to his foot. Bill tapped on the receiver to illustrate how the muscle pulsated.

Hughes wanted to know how she and Bill met, so Leigh told the story of the member of Dog Company, getting a laugh from the actor. Then, he asked about how Bill dealt with his life changing injury. Leigh described her husband's attitude of,

"They'll give me a wooden leg an' I'll be fine." She explained that he never considered himself handicapped and that she never kept Bill from doing things he believed he could do, citing how he got up and down a ladder.

"He says, 'I climb up and down the ladder, but I do it in a different way. I may climb down on my ass, but I get it done.'" Then, Leigh told the story about the airplane having engine trouble and Bill hopping on one leg, demanding a parachute so he could jump out of the plane.

Hughes thanked Leigh for her time. She found him to be extremely polite and committed to his portrayal of her husband. After talking with the actor, Bill came up to Leigh, asking,

"What did ya think of the kid? He sure as hell sounds like me."

"He sounds just like you, but you're better looking."

"Not every guy can be good lookin' like ol' Guarnere." Leigh laughed and kissed him,

"Not every guy has your penchant for telling the truth while being an adorable smart ass." He chuckled at his wife's comment. The time arrived for the battle scenes to be filmed. Leigh was surprised to see the artificially created pine trees exploding as the effects of the enemy shelling was depicted.

Babe and Bill intently watched the actors. If they were bothered by what they saw, they never indicated having a problem with reliving the Battle of the Bulge. Tom Hanks asked both men during a break in filming if they wanted to leave the set. Both Guarnere and Heffron refused. Bill said,

"It's ancient history, Kid. I kinda expected to see more explosions." Hanks explained that some scenes would have explosives rigged to go off, but the majority of the explosions would be added by computer animation. Babe told Hanks,

"It's too bad you couldn't make it cold so those kids could really understand what it was like for us. They'll never understand what it was like to be in that freezin' weather day in an' day out." Bill added,

"Tom, if ya wanna know what it was like, just imagine wearin' pajamas an' gettin' 'em soakin' wet wit' freezin' rain an' snow. Then, go stand in a blizzard wit' lots of high speed wind an' stay outside that way for a few months."

"I'm telling the actors what you just said, word for word, Bill. You boys were beyond tough. I'd like to think that the young men of today could do that, but they don't make men like you guys anymore." Guarnere disagreed,

"There are still men like us. Just wait and see, someday they will have to step up an' do the right thing in war or if somethin' would happen in the states." The following morning, Bill, Babe and Leigh returned to see the depiction of Guarnere's leg being destroyed. Bill noticed a special effects man bringing something onto the set. The man set up the scene in the paper snow. Guarnere had everyone laughing when he told Heffron,

"Look, Babe, there's me leg." For this scene, hidden explosives were used to simulate the shelling of Bill and Joe. Tom Hanks insisted upon the trio wearing some industrial ear plugs due to the intensity of the sound. At first, Bill and Babe wouldn't wear the ear plugs. They watched the scene, agreeing,

"It sure as hell sounds like it did back then." Both men decided to put in the ear plugs after experiencing ringing in their ears from the noise.The scene began with Bill hearing Joe's voice. Leigh stifled a gasp when she saw Kirk Acevedo dragging himself in the snow, saying,

"I've got to get up...I've got to get up." Leigh watched intently as Hughes darted from the foxhole to save Acevedo. She was so involved with the scene that she saw Bill and Joe instead of the actors. Leigh could almost hear the real voice of Buck Compton shouting,

"Come on, come on!" Then, the massive explosion detonated, sending paper, black dirt and tree fragments into the air. The following scene was set up and the actors were positioned in the paper snow tinted with red to simulate blood.

Although she never made a sound, tears flowed down Leigh's face as she saw the lifeless looking bodies of the young men in the scene. She managed to stop herself from crying out in horror at the depiction of Bill's foot being connected to his right leg by a pulsating strip of muscle.

Knowing the living hell Guarnere experienced was like a body blow to Leigh. She felt like sobbing until she couldn't produce more tears and she couldn't help but see Bill lying in the red tinted paper snow instead of Hughes.

This brought back the heartbreak and horror she experienced when Nixon delivered the bad news about Bill. She had no idea how he was able to tell her, after waking up to find her in a chair beside his hospital bed,

"I can see you've been gettin' too upset about me. I'll be fine." A young woman working behind the scenes kept a close watch on Leigh. There was an agreed upon a signal she could give if she needed to leave the hangar during filming.

Bill wanted to stand beside or behind Leigh, but a camera mounted on a dolly for tracking shots blocked his path and he didn't want to hold up filming by having to take a detour around the hangar to stand by her. He was standing close to the young woman watching his wife. Guarnere noticed the tears flowing down Leigh's face and he felt guilty for bringing her to the set.

When Leigh saw the badly mangled leg and the agony Bill had in the aftermath of the shelling, crying out in pain as he was loaded onto the stretcher, she raised her left arm. The young woman led her off set to a quiet area where she could sit down and get away from the intense scene.

Leigh was almost ready to sit in a canvas director's chair when she noticed Bill following her. He quickly went to her, balanced on one crutch and pulled her close to him, stroking her back as she sobbed with her head against his shoulder. Guarnere could feel her trembling.

"Sweetheart, it's OK. That was a long time ago." Leigh answered, with her voice breaking,

"I had no idea what you went through. It's like a knife in my heart to see how badly those bastards hurt you. Dear God, all of that suffering!" Guarnere kissed the top of her head,

"Honey, I shoulda insisted that you stayed home instead o' talkin' ya into comin' here. I was too damn selfish wantin' you to come along. Leigh, I really didn't think you would take it so hard after all these years. I don't want nothin' hurtin' you like this an' I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault. If I wanted to stay home, I would've stayed. Even if it's all make believe, this was the first time I saw what happened before you arrived at the hospital." Guarnere got a handkerchief from a pocket in his jacket and he dried Leigh's tears. She got a tissue out of her purse, blew her nose and deposited the used tissue into a nearby trash can.

"Baby, do you wanna go back to the hotel. I'll go wit' ya. They're done wit' that scene. Let's just go back an' take it easy. I wanna hold ya close to me while we relax on the bed."

"Yes, I'd like to go back to the hotel." Bill got the attention of the limousine driver assigned to him by Tom Hanks. He asked the young man to please take them to the hotel and to let Babe know where they were going.

Meanwhile, Tom Hanks had noticed Bill leaving the set. He guessed that Guarnere was going where Leigh went with the assistant. Tom saw Bill comforting his wife. Hanks tapped Hughes on the shoulder, telling him,

"If you want to know more about the type of man Bill Guarnere is, just look over there." Both men respected the Guarneres' privacy and they didn't intrude. Seeing the tender side of the still tough former staff sergeant gave the actor a better understanding of Bill's personality.

The driver went to find Heffron, giving him Bill's message. Then he returned, walking with Bill and Leigh to an exit. He asked them to wait while he got the car. Soon, the large limousine pulled up to the door. The driver got out and opened the back door for the Guarneres. Bill stepped aside to allow Leigh to enter the car first.

They were soon en route to The Ritz. Guarnere smoked a cigarette during their ride to their plush hotel suite. Once they entered the suite, Bill and Leigh went back to the bedroom. Leigh removed her coat and shoes, reclining on the bed. Bill took off his coat and shoe, setting his crutches beside the bed. He stretched out beside Leigh, pulling her close to him and wrapping his arms around her.

Guarnere had never seen his wife as upset as she had been in the hangar. He kissed her, gently rubbing her back,

"Are you OK now, Baby? I don't want anythin' upsettin' ya like that again." He nuzzled his face into her hair, adding, "I love you, Leigh. You got me through all o' that stuff, bein' there for me an' cookin' for me." She snuggled close to him,

"I'm OK, Bill, and I love you, too. Thank God Mama and Pop never had to see that. It would've broken their hearts." Guarnere continued to rub her back,

"You're right, Baby. It's a blessin' they didn't see how bad it was." Leigh was quiet for a moment and then she asked him,

"Do you think the kids and grandkids should be told ahead of time about that scene? It's emotionally devastating. Granted, I'm probably not as strong as you are. I don't know how the hell you can watch it and not let it upset you.

I hate to admit it, but I don't think that I can sit through it with our family. My emotions feel as raw as they did the day I got the news from Nix."

"Baby, the kids an' grandkids need to know the truth. We can tell 'em ahead o' time that it's gonna be hard for 'em to watch an' they can make up their own minds.

The truth ain't always pretty or nice. It don't bother me seein' it, 'cause it was a long time ago. I always knew I had it in me to live wit' the injury. Survivin' was the hard part, at first, but it beat the hell out o' dyin'.

Honey, you're a strong woman. If it hurts ya that much, then I don't expect ya to sit through that part. Like I said, I don't never want you hurtin' like that again. You're still my everythin', Leigh." Bill tenderly kissed her.

"The kids and grandkids can decide for themselves if they want to see that scene. You're right, Honey, they should know the true story. You're one hell of a man, Bill Guarnere, and you're still my everything, too."

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