By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
The rain ended and the clouds parted just in time for a special pinning ceremony to honor 98-year-old World War II veteran Aldean Mason on Friday.
Hospice of Michigan and Azpira Place of Breton, located in Kentwood, teamed up together to recognize Mason, who service as a nurse in the United States Army during World War II.
“Aldean is a loving, kind, wonderful person,” said Azpira Place of Breton Executive Director Jenny Osentoski. “To know that she gave hands on care to survivors of the Holocaust and then went on to lived a lovely life even after all that is amazing.”
About a dozen residents and staff along with the media attended a short ceremony outside the main doors of Azpira Place of Breton where representatives from Hospice of Michigan gave Mason a pin featuring the American flag and a flag for hospice and a certificate. Family members not able to attend joined via Zoom.
Mason was born on Oct. 24, 1921 in the state of Washington. She was one of seven children and assumed the role of mother when her mother passed away. Upon completion of nursing school, Mason joined the 120th Evacuation Hospital Unit as part of General George Patton’s 3rd Army. She arrived in France in 1944 and began treating wounded U.S. soldiers.
The following year, Mason’s unit was sent to an area near Buchenwald Concentration Camp, located on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany. It was one of Germany’s first and largest concentration camps in the country’s 1937 borders. Lack of food and poor conditions along with executions lead to 56,545 deaths of the 280,000 prisoners housed at Buchenwald and its subcamps. The camp was liberated by the U.S. 89th Infantry Division.
In Mason’s story, read by staff, her unit thought they were heading to Germany to continue to treat more American soldiers. Instead, they would witness the horrors of a conception camp as they helped those who suffered from severe malnutrition, typhus and other diseases. As the famous American journalist Edward R. Murrow wrote in an April 15, 1945 report about Buchenwald, “We walked out into the courtyard, a man fell dead. Two others, they must have been over 60, were crawling toward the latrine. I saw it, but will not describe it.”
According to staff, Mason recalled how distraught she and the other nurses were to discover the realities of concentration camps. One survivor, Jack Pinto, credited Mason for giving him the desire to live. “I did not want to live,” Pinto said in an Los Angeles Times story about the two reuniting in 1995. “She sat on my bed, many times, talking.”
Mason would marry a doctor from the unit, Walter, who she did not meet until after the war, and the two would raise a family. The two were married for 57 years when Walter passed away in 2006. Mason has lived at Azpira Place of Breton for the past nine years.
Mike Nitz, director of Community Relations for the Azpira Place of Breton, said the senior living facility has about eight World War II and Korean veterans as well Vietnam veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are about 300,000 U.S. World War II veterans alive with the U.S. losing about 348 veterans per day.
“I try to come to as many of these as possible,” said U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Russell Spearow who presented Mason with a coin from his battalion, the 3rd Battalion of the 333rd Infantry. The battalion has a long history with its members also serving in World War II. “I think it is so important to be able to witness living history.”
The event was part of the Hospice of Michigan’s We Honor Veterans, which honors men and women who served the United States and help educate and provide care for the specific needs of veterans. It is estimated that one in four Americans dying is a veteran.
“Coming off of Memorial Day, we felt it is so important to recognize our veterans,” Nitz said, adding that it is especially true as quarantine orders have prevented loved ones from being able to have face-to-face visits.
“It has been so hard for the residents and their families not to be able to come in contact,” Osentoski said. “We see the residents everyday and are part of their daily lives. During our parade [last weekend] where families decorated their cars and past by, we could actually see the tears in residents’ eyes and their families’.”
Osentoski said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Azpira Place of Breton has been fortunate in being able to provide community activities such as the special pinning for Mason, helping to keep their residents engaged and connected.
