THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995 TAG: 9512190089
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER NORFOLK
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
He had seen her picture; she had seen his.
But until John A. ``Jack'' Reilly stepped off the train into an icy Nebraska depot two weeks before Christmas in 1945, he and his 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Karen, had never actually met.
``I spent over two days on the train trying to get home,'' recalled Reilly, now a 78-year-old Norfolk resident who retired from the Navy in 1978. ``And when I got there, it was a real happening. All I remember is that I was just so glad to finally be home.''
Waiting that day at the station to welcome him home from World War II, in the arms of her mother, was a walking, talking toddler with a penchant for getting into mischief.
``She knew right away who I was,'' the father said. ``It was something.''
A few months before Karen was born, Reilly left home for Naval training. He didn't return for three years.
During the war, his wife, Leona, moved from their home in California to stay with her sister in Nebraska. Her sister also had a young child and a husband serving overseas. The rest of the family, including her parents, lived nearby.
When Karen was born, Reilly was waiting to ship out to the Pacific aboard a Navy repair ship. He requested leave to go home and see his daughter and first child.
``But it was war, and they frowned on that kind of thing,'' he said. ``It was no big deal; I wasn't the only one in that situation.''
So he left for the Pacific not long afterward, never having seen his new daughter. Almost immediately, Leona began sending him letters and pictures of Karen taking her first steps, celebrating her birthdays, opening presents at Christmas and other milestones.
``He missed a lot,'' Leona said.
Leona also gave Karen pictures of her father.
``She wore out one of the pictures, telling everyone that this was her daddy,'' Leona recalled. ``She knew he was fighting the war.''
Reilly's Christmas reunion with his wife and daughter those 50 years ago was doubly blessed because he was the first of the family's fighting men to return home. The Reillys spent that first Christmas after the war with family, exchanging gifts, waiting for Santa and eating a turkey dinner.
``We were so lucky,'' Leona recalled.
Like so many servicemen returning from war, Reilly spent that Christmas just trying to melt into the life around him. Part of that was getting to know his daughter - who now resides in New Jersey - for the first time.
``That Christmas I just wanted to forget what had happened those three years and spend the holiday as we'd always done,'' he said.
Together, as a family. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by BETH BERGMAN
Leona and John Reilly, who now live in Norfolk, were apart for three
years while he served in the Pacific during World War II.
When John returned in 1945, he saw his 2 1/2-year-old daughter,
Karen, for the first time.
by CNB