Freedom is not free
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his friend.” She had no doubt that this handsome young man was the answer to her prayers, and Bill, for his part, was equally smitten. The relationship moved quickly, but something troubled Bill. He finally decided to lay it all on the line – actually laying a thick folder containing his medical records on Charlotte’s lap. “Read these,” he told her, “and if you feel like you can go on from here with me after what you read, we’ll go on, and if you don’t, then I’ll walk away.” She scoured the documents then made her decision. “I took him on faith, and I took him on love, and I love him just the way he was, and I love him just the way he is.” The two were married within weeks.

Some 53 years later Charlotte helped Bill write about his years as a POW, motivated by their desire to explain to their granddaughters why they couldn’t jump on grandpa’s bed to wake him up.

Bill Smith spent his time in hell, and understands freedom in a way that most of us can never comprehend. He credits Charlotte with saving his life. “Freedom is not free,” he tells anyone who will listen. “Be watchful of those who would take it.”

Mark DePue is the director of oral history at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. You can listen to Bill and Charlotte Smith’s entire story, and those of many other veterans, at the program’s website, http://www.alplm.org/oral_history/projects.html.