Charlie and Bob

This is a true story.

Most names have been changed to protect, etc. But it happened a very long time ago. I have told this story only once to a close friend of mine, Don Gilmore. Don can tell you the proper names when you see him. (He died several years ago.)

Once upon a time, we knew a married couple named Ed and Charlie. Charlie was the mother of three children and the wife of Ed. But soon Ed divorced Charlie for another woman, and he leaves this story, but he left Charlie in terrible condition. Charlie's mother and father lived close to her and helped with the kids, but they both were soon gone also due to a fire in their home. Luckily Charlie's oldest son escaped the fire. The others kids were staying with Charlie.

Times were tough for Charlie, until she met a truck driver that came through town every couple of weeks. His name was Bob.

As time passed, Bob came to town more and more often, until he finally moved in with Charlie. Things were finally looking up for Charlie. But Bob refused to marry to Charlie. They visited us regularly. Many times they would go for a long walk down the road and would come back with the smell of weed.

This went on for about a year, and Bob finally told me that he was going to marry Charlie. And before long they did get married. I was happy for Bob and Charlie and they were both happy to be together.

Bob had stopped driving a truck all over the USA and settled into a local job driving milk trucks from local dairies to various milk companies.
Things went well, until we got a phone call from Charlie telling us that Bob had been driving a gasoline truck and it had exploded. All that was ever found of Bob was a small handful of bone fragments. Sad times were back for Charlie.

The story now turns from Charlie in a very weird way.

One early Saturday morning, the sheriff showed up. He said he needed to question me about a murder. I said I would help if possible, but I knew nothing about a murder. He said that a witness had seen me and my wife visiting a grave at a small cemetery just down the road. The witness had watched us return to our home so he assumed it was Penny and me.

I told him that we sometime go for a walk that goes by the cemetery but we never visited any graves there. I asked who's grave are you asking about? He told me that it only said "Baby XXXX". ( I don't think I should reveal the name.)

I asked the sheriff, "The murder was of a baby?" And he said, “Probably, but they needed more information before the body was exhumed. He said the cemetery caretaker had called him about a grave that was not in the record books. The police assumed that someone was murdered and the body hidden in the old cemetery, where by sheer luck the caretaker noted the new grave and reported it.

I told the Sheriff that I had known a couple named XXXX, but Bob had been killed in a truck explosion over a year ago, but Bob and Charlie had no baby.

Penny entered the room to see who I was talking to. The Sherriff asked Penny if she knew anything about a grave with the name Baby XXXX.

Penny's eyes grew big and her chin dropped. She began to get very excited and I knew she knew something. She began to explain that the grave was not a grave but just a mound with a headstone.

She told us that Charlie had told Bob that she was pregnant. When she could not keep up the story after the marriage she decided she would have to tell Bob that she lost the baby.. Bob was gone for a couple of weeks driving across the USA for extra money, and she decided that she would tell Bob that the baby died while he was on the road. She stopped at a place that made headstones and told them that her baby died and she didn't have any money for a headstone. She cried and cried and finally they made a head stone for her with no records and no payment.

Charlie had gone to the cemetery and made a mound and placed the headstone there. Suddenly I realized why almost every week end they would come to visit and take that long walk by the cemetery. I could see them sitting by the grave mourning the baby. Poor Bob died after thinking he had lost a child.

The Sheriff said he had never heard such a weird story. It was so weird, he said, it had to be true. He said he had confidence that no one would care about his digging up the grave just so he could wrap up the case. He said if more info was needed he would be back in a short while.

I was worried about Charlie, would she be charged with a crime? I guess the Sheriff felt like me. He did not want to bother Charlie with additional worry. We never saw the Sherriff again, but we see Charlie often, but I could never tell her about the sheriff's visit. But Penny probably did.