HEROES: Happy Ending

When they got back to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1945, Major Hans George Hornbostel was 64, his wife Gertrude was 54. World War II had treated them cruelly. Major Hornbostel, an ex-Marine officer who had been commissioned by the Army when war broke out, had fought on Bataan, had endured the infamous Death March and spent years in prison. Gertrude had spent three years as a prisoner in Manila amid the dreary terrors of Santo Tomas.

In San Francisco fate struck another terrible blow. Doctors found that Gertrude Hornbostel had contracted leprosy. Except for World War II, the Hornbostels had never been separated since their marriage on Guam in 1913. Major Hornbostel made an instant decision. When his wife was sent to the National Leprosarium at Carville, La., he went with her. He prepared to stay for life, settled down near the hospital grounds. The aging couple spent a great part of every day together.

Last week medical men at Carville wrote a happy ending to the Hornbostel story: Mrs. Hornbostel, who had shown “remarkable improvement,” was released from isolation and the couple headed for New York and a new start in life.