Excellent! It took me several years to finally accept the fact I couldn't pick up the phone and call my mom or dad and tell them something or ask them a question... like "Mom, can you please send me the recipe for those Thai coconut squares you used to make..." I've had it in my mind to write a book (essentially the story of my life) not necessarily for publication (my life has not been that riveting) but more so my grandson can have the story.
About 14 or so years ago, I found my biological father and we had an instant and very rewarding connection for about 10 years before he passed. One thing that came out of that was a very detailed memoir that his mother had written about his childhood and living through the Russian advance across Northern Poland...the end of WWII in Germany and their eventual journey through Canada before finally settling in the Santa Barbara area. It's a fascinating and terrifying journal at the same time. It gave me incredible insight into my father's life as well as what his parents went through during WWII which included my bio-grandfather being conscripted into the German Luftwaffe as an aircraft mechanic, getting captured by the Allies in Italy and being shipped off to an Allied internment camp in France until the war ended. Then, his journey back to N. Germany to find my grandmother and father.
My life is essentially a tale of two families; both distinctly different and independently interesting. Your column today inspires me to start making clicks on the keyboard!
Thank you, Jim. This is heartening for YOU and for all of us. What a fascinating saga yours is.
Excellent! It took me several years to finally accept the fact I couldn't pick up the phone and call my mom or dad and tell them something or ask them a question... like "Mom, can you please send me the recipe for those Thai coconut squares you used to make..." I've had it in my mind to write a book (essentially the story of my life) not necessarily for publication (my life has not been that riveting) but more so my grandson can have the story.
About 14 or so years ago, I found my biological father and we had an instant and very rewarding connection for about 10 years before he passed. One thing that came out of that was a very detailed memoir that his mother had written about his childhood and living through the Russian advance across Northern Poland...the end of WWII in Germany and their eventual journey through Canada before finally settling in the Santa Barbara area. It's a fascinating and terrifying journal at the same time. It gave me incredible insight into my father's life as well as what his parents went through during WWII which included my bio-grandfather being conscripted into the German Luftwaffe as an aircraft mechanic, getting captured by the Allies in Italy and being shipped off to an Allied internment camp in France until the war ended. Then, his journey back to N. Germany to find my grandmother and father.
My life is essentially a tale of two families; both distinctly different and independently interesting. Your column today inspires me to start making clicks on the keyboard!