A Promising Future

Seligenstadt, Germany, March or April 1948. This is another image of my Parents with a friend shortly before my Parents married.

Planning Ahead

Seligenstadt, Germany, March or April 1948. This is another image taken shortly after my Parents got engaged. The woman on the far right is Angele, and the child is my Mom's goddaughter.

Thanking Back

Last year on Thanksgiving Day—when this blog was still quite new, and I had not yet posted many of the "way-back-when" photos—I scanned a little photo and asked my Mom why everyone in the image looked so sad. The photo, I learned that day, was taken when Mom and her Dad, Jake, were about to flee Lithuania.

I remain thankful that Mom and Jake became refugees. I'm most thankful that my Mom is vibrantly healthy—and still razor sharp—as she recounts memories from her life.

I'm thankful for my Dad—who today would have celebrated his ninetieth birthday—for treating every photo in his collection as an archival treasure.

And I'm thankful, of course, that Mom and Dad met at a party in a Displaced Persons camp, and that they married less than three months later.

So here again is a snapshot from a set I posted last spring that captures their new, young love.

Seligenstadt, Germany, February 1948. My Parents had just met.

It's Official

Seligenstadt, Germany, March or April 1948. Here again are my Parents, shortly after they got engaged. They are out for a walk with my Mom's friend, Angele.

Forever Young

A handful of photos reminds me how young my Parents were when they met and married. This image of the two as twenty-something honeymooners, for example, is delightful. I wept the first time I saw one fuzzy, but molten, photo-booth snapshot.

Here are the remaining photos—a short series—from that afternoon pop into the photo booth:

Seligenstadt, Germany, February 1948. My Parents saw each other exactly sixteen times before they married. Mom's hat has some fashionable netting around the forehead.

Mom remembers that life was rocky for Displaced Persons, but she underscores that DPs were buoyant and resilient. Many of the DPs viewed those years as an adventure.

Photo Booth

Here's a gem from the outtakes box:

Seligenstadt, Germany, February 1948. My Parents, not yet married, slipped into a photo booth.

Engaging

Seligenstadt, Germany, March or April 1948. My Parents, shortly after they got engaged.