Mystery at Sea (page 2 of 6)

Pain and Denial

The summer passed without the Abeles hearing from their husband and father. When news finally did come, on September 30, the boys were outside playing football. Their mother called them in to listen as she read a telegram from the Navy: Commander Abele was "missing following action in the performance of his duty and in the service of his country." Across America, 69 other families received the same notice.

After the disappearance of the Grunion, times were hard. Catherine Abele struggled to support her sons by teaching music in her home. She never borrowed money -- "It wouldn't be done," says son Bruce -- and all the while clung to the belief that as long as the Grunion was missing, there was reason for hope.

When a death benefit check arrived from the government, "my mother sent it back," says Brad. "If you cashed it, you bought into the contract, the deal that your husband had died. And she never bought into that deal."

Nor did other Grunion families. "My mother never remarried either," says Nancy Kornahrens Stark, daughter of William Kornahrens, a lieutenant on the sub. "That was true for many of the wives of the Grunion. They stayed married to their husbands. They believed their husbands were just missing."

The mystery wouldn't stop gnawing at Nancy Stark. "I never knew my father," she says. "If you don't know your dad, then who are you?"

Stark reached out to her missing father by learning to sail. "I love anything near the water," she says. "When I'm on the water, even today, I feel close to my dad.

"My mom never talked much about him," she continues, "so I grew up with this mystery. There was always a part of me that felt he was marooned on a desert island or taken as a prisoner of war. I felt like he'd come back."

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