Welcome home Tootie: returns from Middle East tour

You would have thought there was a graduation party Tuesday night at Klee Road and M-68, where Tootie Wickersham?s grandparents live, and where Tootie herself spent four years.

It was a party, sure enough, and filled with Tootie?s family including aunts, uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews from the Basel, Wickersham, and Altman clans. All were quietly waiting for Tootie and her mom, Marcia Pidgen, to walk through the door. Tootie has been stationed in Bahrain near the Kuwait border since last spring when she was deployed there while in the Navy. Family and friends have been on high alert ever since, hoping she would be all right and not harmed in any way.

Along with countless others in the military, Tootie has been on local churches? prayer lists and on the minds of this community right along with all the other young adults in the military. Tootie came back home safe and sound, one of the first to return to this community. Everyone hopes the same scenario will repeat itself with the rapid return of many of the community?s other military as well.

TOOTIE FOUND out July 27 she was eligible for leave time, but when she checked on a ticket home the price was $1,700, not exactly affordable. ?Thank God for Bob Wodkowski,? her mother Marcia said. ?He was able to find her a flight for an affordable price.?

So Tootie flew to Texas where she will now be stationed. Her family knew she was safe at last, but still had not seen her, touched her or been able to reassure themselves. All that was over Tuesday at 10 p.m. after Marcia retrieved Tootie from Saginaw and drove up to Grandpa Bud and Grandma Ruth Basel?s home.

?What have you done?? Tootie asked her mom upon seeing all the cars that filled the drive and yard as well. Being the unpretentious person she is, Tootie was surely even more surprised Wednesday during the daylight hours when she saw many Third Street businesses put up signs of welcome in her honor. For months, her grandpa, Bud Basel, has been telling everybody including Tootie, ?I?m just waiting for you to return.?

But as fate would have it, Bud suffered a small stroke just days before Tootie was due in Michigan, and Tuesday his condition warranted emergency action and put him in the hospital in Petoskey. ?SHE WAS just silent and stared straight ahead when I finally told her about her grandpa on the ride home from the airport,? Marcia said. That?s Tootie, she?s a keep-it-all-in kind of gal who just handles everything that comes along. First on Tootie?s list was to visit her Grandpa Bud in Petoskey Wednesday morning with her mom and aunt. When asked how it was over in Bahrain, she said, ?It was OK.?

In other words, she came back and survived it all, so it was OK. Was it scary or did any close calls happen while you were

?We had a lot of protesters, then we couldn?t leave work…almost every night ? people were blowing up tanks and stuff,? Tootie related. Tootie?s job was mostly as ground crew for the helicopters that supplied the ships and troops in the area, but she did occasionally go up in the helicopter missions as well. How does it feel to be home?

?AWESOME!? How?d you feel when you first saw your mom at the airport? ?Just happy ? I hugged her.? How?d you feel when you saw everybody came here to greet you? ?Happy for their support,? Tootie said simply, in her own way of handling big emotional ?stuff.?

Tootie looks very well, and her spirits remain in tact. She will be leaving for Texas Tuesday, but as yet has not decided if she will sign up for another hitch when her four-year commitment ends next May.