Region – A Westborough woman’s essay on her late father was chosen as the winning entry in the recent “Hero Among Us” program sponsored by Hanscom Federal Credit Union (Hanscom FCU) .
“My father will forever be my greatest hero in life,” Karen Bain-Morgado wrote in her essay about her father, Arnold Bain.
The elder Bain, a resident of Ashland, passed away in 2013. He had served in the U.S. Army during World War II and as a young private serving in Europe, he was witness to the aftermath of the Gardelegen massacre in April 1945. Over 1,000 prisoners burned to death inside a barn as German troops retreated across the countryside.
“He told me how the graphic sights, smells and feel of this experience rocked him to his core and haunted him for years afterward – long after he had returned home, married and had his children,” explained Bain-Morgado in her essay. “I was so moved by his courage in sharing with me this obviously painful story, that was still so graphic in his psyche nearly 40 years after the fact, that I have carried the lesson of his strength and humanity from it ever since.”
With his family present, the memory and legacy of Arnold Bain was honored prior to the start of the Aug. 12 Lowell Spinners game versus the Brooklyn Cyclones at LeLacheur Park. Bain’s wife, Francine, threw out the opening pitch and then the family watched the game from a luxury suite sponsored by Hanscom FCU.
