Flashback Friday

Ok, so this is a new idea for bimonthly-ish :) blog post featuring writings, drawings, photographs, memories from my past. Any writings I post here will be mostly unedited from their original form, I will only make any corrections my teacher (if it was something for school) at the time. I am pretty excited about doing these, mainly because my memory is not always awesome and having these things cataloged somewhere will be awesome. Plus, it's always fun to share :).  

Today's post will be a paper I wrote in 8th grade about how my fraternal grandmother and how my grandparents met. I called my grandmother and interviewed her about it, so the story is 100% authentic. Enjoy, from my 8th grade self :)

The Early War
     Gabrielle Janich was a nine year old girl when her father took her to church that day in Steyr, Austria. He waited for her to come out at the park across the street as he usually did, but this time when Gabrielle came out of the church, something was wrong. All the men in town were huddled in a circle whispering about something, and when she approached they told her to go away. 
     The next day Adolf Hitler and his Nazi soldiers set up troops and invaded her small town. They built a concentration camp just outside of Steyr. Every day when the troops would march the prisoners through the streets the women and young girls would throw them pieces of bread and cigarettes.

The Hard Times 
     After America got into the war Austria was bombed. One day one of those bombs struck Gabrielle's home with everyone still in it. The house fell to the ground burying it's occupants. The Janich's neighbors dug them out and no one was harmed. 
    After the bombing Gabrielle just went back to school as usual. During the winter afternoons when the class got sleepy her teachers would drag them out into the cold and make them exercise, telling them to ignore the Nazi troops. 

Nearing the End
     Toward the end of the war school was closed and the girls were made to work in loading the guns used to shoot planes out of the sky. Gabrielle was not one of those girls, her father sent her to a farm away from Steyr so she would be safe. 

The Stupid Monkeys
     Shortly after the war ended Russian and American troops entered Steyr and split the town in half, the river flowing through the town was the divider with Russian and American outposts on either side. In one of these outposts was a man named Calvin DeHart. Whenever Gabrielle would come to the outpost for milk this young soldier would detain her for some reason of interest. 
     Later, after school resumed, he would follow her there. She did not know much english so she and her friends called him and the other American soldiers "stupid monkeys". Later, after Gabrielle finished 2 years of college she married her handsome monkey and returned with him to America. A happy ending to a horrible war.

Calvin & Gabrielle DeHart on their wedding day (she was 17 & he 19). Notice my grandfather is wearing edelweiss on his lapel. Edelweiss  is a rugged flower that grows in the Alps. There is a legend that says if a man truly loved a woman he would scale the mountain to pick an edelweiss for her. It represents daring, courage & noble purity (and in a few places I read it also symbolizes love & dedication). 

Steyr, Austria
To read more about Steyr click here.
Photo Credit

Photo Credit

That was a lot harder to type out unedited then I thought it would be ;-).

I love remembering this conversation with my grandmother and am prompted, if the opportunity should present itself, to ask her more. Sadly, this story's happy ending didn't remain happy forever. My grandfather, while a wonderful sweet man, grew up in a rough backwoods (for lack of a better term) family and my grandmother was the only daughter of well off Catholic parents. It was rough going for them. My grandmother spoke little english and most of my grandfather's family were unkind to her (my grandfather had two brothers and three sisters). After a few years (less than 5) fairly shortly after my dad was born (he has one older sister) my grandparents were divorced. I cannot imagine the pain of divorce, especially back in a day when it was so taboo. My grandmother didn't really know anyone outside my grandfather's family, but would not return home because her children were here. Some years later (I am not sure how many but I don't think it was several) my grandmother married my grandfather's younger brother, who had always been kind to her and they had two daughters together. My grandfather also remarried my grandma Grace and the two of them raised my dad and aunt Linda. My dad did have some contact with his mother, my grandpa got full custody, I assume because it was after the war and my grandmother, to the layman, appeared German. Healing did come in the family eventually, I remember my grandmother and Uncle Bernard coming here to visit us when I was younger. My dad has a wonderful relationship with his mom and I am so happy to have had the chance to know her as an adult. She is a wonderful person, my grandfather was too and I believe they carried (carry, my grandmother is still with us) love in their hearts for one another always. Sometimes fairy tale like stories don't have fairy tale endings.