Spouse seeking honor for Gene Reynolds, an Ashland veteran who died with cancer
Diane Reynolds wondered as she looked through her late husband Gene's photos if he might still be alive had he never been exposed to toxic chemicals while in the Army.
"He got it from Korea, in our opinion," she said. "That was the Vietnam era, so the guys burned that Agent Orange and stuff and it made them sick."
Gene died in September 2021 at the age of 77 after a 15-year struggle with health issues that started with Parkinson's Disease.
"He had a lot of brain surgeries," Diane said. "They put electrodes in there."
Then he fell in the bathroom and broke his hip. During that surgery, doctors discovered that he had more health concerns.
"They called me and said that there was cancer in his bones," Diane said. "That's why he was hurting. That's why he was getting frail. He was to the point sometimes he couldn't keep his eyes open."
'He was so patriotic'
Gene William Reynolds — "It was Gene, not Eugene," his wife said — was born in Ashland and graduated an Arrow from high school in 1963.
He immediately joined the Army and found success as a sharpshooter and an engineer.
Gene was a member of the 13th Engineer Combat Battalion, according to Penni Jordan, a service officer with the Richland County VA.
"He was in Korea during the Vietnam era," Jordan said. "He was in South Korea."
Diane said her husband never spoke much about the war, although he was not shy to let people know how he felt about his country.
"He was so patriotic," she said.
'I stuck my little nose up in the air and walked away'
Gene came home from Korea in 1966, yet remained in the reserves until 1969. He got a job with Ohio Edison and worked there for 40 years.
They didn't know one another yet, so Gene and Diane each married other people. A decade later, though, they were both single again and out on the town.
Diane said she was a young, single mother and rarely allowed strange men to contact her at home.
"I never gave my real phone number," she recalled. "I worked at a bank. I worked a job and a half. I was hanging on to my house and my child. I was careful."
Gene asked for her number and Diane decided to give him the correct digits. Then the unexpected happened.
"He never called," Diane said.
Two weeks went by and she bumped into the man on the street.
"He said, 'how are you doing?' I said, 'What do you care, you never called,'" Diane remembered. "I turned around and I stuck my little nose up in the air and walked away, and he called the next day. We started dating. We were married within six months."
That was 1983.
"This year would have been 40 years," she said.
'I was definitely blessed'
The couple stayed in Ashland and raised three children together. They eventually built a cute house on the outside of town that feels like a log cabin inside and is secluded from the road by a small forest of pines.
"We did a lot of boating," Diane said. "He worked a lot of overtime. We both worked hard."
Gene lived to see a son and grandson become Marines. He taught a granddaughter how to shoot rifles.
Several years ago, they decided it was time to select a pair of burial plots.
"I was talking to the guy and turned around and Gene was laying on our plot," Diane recalled with a smile. "He said, 'Come lay beside me and see if we fit.' I'm surprised he didn't get killed right then. It was not funny at the time, but I see the humor in it now."
Gene was selected to take the Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., in 2016. It's a free trip for veterans organized by nonprofit organizations.
"That made him beam ear-to-ear," Diane said.
The couple's home is filled with photos and trinkets that remind her of decades of memories the couple shared together.
"He was such a good guy," Diane said. "I was definitely blessed."
'I got a mystery bouquet of flowers'
Then came Gene's fateful fall in summer 2021. He had surgery Aug. 3. Four days later, Aug. 7, was Diane's birthday.
"I got a mystery bouquet of flowers," Diane said. "I didn't know for a long time, but he had asked the nurses to get them."
The nurses tried to make Gene's final weeks as peaceful as they could, bringing him ice cream whenever they noticed he was having a bad day.
He died Sept. 4, 2021.
"His death certificate says 10 years of Parkinson's and one month of cancer," Diane said.
She waited until after winter for Gene's military honors. The family chose to host the event at Gene and Diane's home. There was a 21-gun salute, followed by taps.
"We made homemade ice cream and we had strawberries and blueberries," Diane said. "That was his red, white and blue."
'I just wanted them to honor him'
After a few weeks of being home alone, Diane started wondering what took Gene from her sooner than expected. She was certain it had to be related to his military service.
"He remembered burning stuff, just like they did in Vietnam," Diane said.
She reached out to Jordan at the Veterans' Affairs office for guidance.
"You can't find the history of that kind of thing," Diane said she learned.
The VA staff helped her put a case together for compensation. That was denied, but that wasn't really what she was after, anyway.
"I just wanted them to honor him," Diane said.
She remembers telling her husband as he was sick in bed that she would make sure the Army honored his death as being caused by military duty.
"I have felt like I lied to him," Diane said. "That's why I wrote to Sherrod Brown."
The U.S. senator has been vocal recently about the Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, which President Joe Biden signed into law in August.
Brown, a Democrat from Cleveland, wrote back in January, advising her on steps she could take to have her claim reconsidered.
Still, it's not really money that the grieving widow is after.
"Gene was always so quiet about his service," Diane said. "I just want them to honor him."
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This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Spouse seeking honor for Gene Reynolds, veteran who died with cancer
