EPITAPH
Very few people living today remember William Randall Crecelius. Most of those who suffered for so many years in the aftermath of his death have also since passed. If you’re a believer in such things, it’s easy to think they’re now all together again.
I am glad I made the effort to locate and assemble this material. Having said that, it is very difficult not to feel the same burden and loss as the family did so many years ago. Before this quest for information began, Randy was part family history, part legend, part hero, but never really an actual person. I have tried to illuminate his spirit and hopefully shed some light on who Randy actually was, the family he was a part of —and perhaps reveal a bit of the human character that was known to those who shared his time.
I have never, ever forgotten during all the years I’ve compiled this material that Randy’s story is just one of 400,000 such stories in this country—and one of millions from around the world. Regardless of station or nation, each person had an individual story—and loved ones who were left behind. Like Henry and Maude, many fathers and mothers were left to suffer in silence. Many Americans lost a treasured brother or sister. And so many children never had a chance to know a parent—to hear their voice, gain from their wisdom, or learn and understand their own family heritage.
I have hundreds of document pages that are not included on this website as this is published in late May, 2009. As time permits, I hope to review those papers and update the site periodically.
Maybe someday I will make it to Australia. For now, I have resolved to put these materials away and move on to other projects. But I know, somewhere in the back of my mind, I’ll always be thinking of Randy, Grandpa and Grandma, Doris, Jim and Bob. I will always be on the lookout for that one additional sliver of information that can somehow help make sense of it all.
May they all rest in peace.
Stephen Gregory McDevitt
Nephew
of Lt. William Randall Crecelius
(Written in 2011)