A Simple Twist of Fate

He woke up the room was bare

*    *    *

He told himself he didn’t care

Pushed the window open wide

Felt an emptiness inside

To which he could not relate

Brought on by a Simple Twist of Fate. *

It’s funny how our lives can be changed so dramatically by a simple twist of fate.  An incident occurs.  It may be an annoyance, an injury, or something we hardly notice. But like a pebble tossed into a pond, it ripples across the fabric of time and space and changes what might have otherwise happened.

My father was drafted to fight in World War II.  Following basic training, he was shipped off to Panama to train with the glider troops.  During the training, he suffered a broken arm.  His unit shipped out, and my father was transferred to the regular infantry.  The gliders had no engines and limited maneuverability.  They were easy targets for the German anti-aircraft guns and suffered heavy losses where they were used.   My father’s recovery from his broken arm and reassignment delayed his arrival to the war in Europe.  By the time he got there, the Germans were in retreat.  My father survived the war and made it back home.  He got married, raised five boys and died at age 79.  But except for the twist of fate that resulted in his broken arm, he may have been one of the casualties among the glider infantry during the Normandy invasion.

My father’s younger brother had just celebrated his 19^th birthday and was on board the troop ship S.S. Leopoldville with over 2,000 American soldiers.  The Leopoldville was carrying American troops across the English Channel on Christmas Eve, 1944.  They were green and inexperienced but were being sent to the front as reinforcements to fight in in the Battle of the Bulge which had begun a week before.  Five miles from land, the Leopoldville was hit by a German U-boat torpedo and sunk.  About 800 men were lost when the ship went to the bottom of the Channel.  My uncle abandoned ship and had to tread water for hours in the icy Channel before being rescued.  Suffering from exposure, he was sent to an Allied hospital to recuperate.  When he returned to duty, he was re-assigned to the Military Police and became an aide to an officer.  Except for the simple twist of fate of having his ship sunk, my uncle may have died in the heat of the Battle of the Bulge.  Instead, he celebrated his 90^th birthday last December.

Fresh out of law school, I was hired as an environmental lawyer in U. S. Steel’s law department.  The U.S. economy went into a recession shortly after I was hired.  The company attempted to cut its losses by closing several steel making plants, laying off thousands of workers, and imposing a wage freeze for those that remained.   Feeling uncertain about what the future might hold for me, I decided to leave U.S. Steel to practice environmental law elsewhere.  Meanwhile, U.S. Steel hired an attorney, Bill Kabbert, to replace me.  On September 8, 1994 Mr. Kabbert was returning to Pittsburgh on USAir Flight 427 from Chicago.  He had been attending a meeting with U.S. EPA that I surely would have been attending had I remained at U.S. Steel.  On its approach to the Pittsburgh International Airport, the plane crashed, killing all 132 passengers aboard.  When I heard about Mr. Kabbert’s death, I immediately realized that it could have been me.  It would have been me – except for a simple twist of fate.

* Simple Twist of Fate, Bob Dylan, © Ram’s Horn Music, 1974, renewed 2002.