Sixty years separate Nicole Siska and John Mims.

She is 19, until recently a manager at McDonald’s.

When Mims was 19, he was held prisoner and tortured by the Japanese.

Siska volunteered to chauffeur Mims across the country. They plan to talk a lot on the ride.

Staff photo by Ethan Hyman Nicole Siska and John Mims look over their schedule for the Bataan Death March survivors reunion. Siska was working at McDonald’s when she read about Mims and his effort to find a way to reach the reunion of Bataan Death March survivors in New Mexico.

During World War II, the Japanese captured thousands of American and Filipino troops after the fall of Bataan in 1942. Soldiers were forced to march from 55 to 65 miles with no food and no water. Those who fell were executed.

Mims was on that march. He was beaten, tortured and forced to work in a coal mine for three years until the prisoners were liberated in 1945.

Mims is now 79 and has so many health problems his doctors wonder what keeps him alive. He believes this might be the last year he can go to the reunion. But his son, who usually makes the drive and looks after his father on the trip, has health problems of his own. Mims was faced with raising about $2,000 to pay expenses and finding a way to get across the country.

Siska knows little about the Bataan Death March. No members of her family served in World War II. But when she read about Mims, she saw a chance to help.

“It seemed like a good thing to do,” Siska said.

Siska is cheerful, prone to smile and giggle, her brown ringlets shaking when she laughs. She finished high school at 15 and now studies business administration and social work at Fayetteville Technical Community College. She’s engaged to a soldier, David Iszkiewicz, who just returned from four months in Afghanistan. Siska found herself with enough time to make the trip after she quit her job.

“It was the end of the road there,” Siska said.

The torture Mims endured crippled him. His hands are gnarled. His captors dipped them in lye for stealing an onion in the prison camp. He moves slowly, but proudly. Last year, at the reunion, Mims shook hands with every person who participated in a reenactment of the march. Mims makes color copies of a certificate of participation from the memorial to sign and hand out to friends.

Siska and Mims met for the first time on March 29, after she volunteered to drive him to New Mexico. Mims asked Siska if her car was comfortable. He said she will be nurse, secretary and chauffeur.

“I’m glad I got somebody that’s smart,” Mims said.

“I told him to stay comfortable and tell me stories,” Siska said.

Mims has found help from other sources, as well. His Veterans of Foreign Wars post, No. 7318 in Southern Pines, raised $1,100 for him.

“One man donated $500, and the rest came from the post,” said Joe Hill, canteen manager. “He’s a member of our post, and it might be his last chance to go.”

Mims hopes to see an old friend one last time while he’s there. Ruben Flores taught Mims his catechism during the long years of their imprisonment in Bataan. Flores became Mims’ godfather in the Catholic Church. Mims converted so he could marry Juanita, a woman he met in a roller rink when he arrived in the Philippines.

Mims’ son, Wayne, and his fiancee, Elena Smith, will care for her while Mims is gone.

Siska said she plans to spend the next few days going over plans for the trip, finding directions, maybe washing her car. They will hit the road on Saturday.

Mims calls her his angel.