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November 11, 2006
in memoriam
I remembered, during my long, long day of letterpress printing today, to shut down the Vandercook and observe two minutes of silence; I didn't think about my granddad, lucky enough to be drafted (into the mines, but he made a deal to go into the British army instead) so late in the game that by the time he was out of basic training the war was over; nor did I think about my step-grandpa, who broke his own elbow with a hammer in a work camp in Holland in order to go to the infirmary, which was easier to escape from, and spent the remainder of the war in a cellar whose trap door was hidden by a heavy dining-room rug. I didn't think of them because both of them survived (although both are gone now, and missed). Instead I thought about a stranger, someone from the other side of the lines, who wore a tiny battered bronze medal that has lain in my mom's tin treasure box all my life. Although my mom later cast doubt upon it, the story I remember being told is that of one of my great-uncles plucking the medal from the cold breast of a dead German soldier, hastily pocketing it for a souvenir, perhaps a cynical act of greed or perhaps a loving act of brotherhood, who knows. As a child, on rainy days when the tin box was brought down from the closet shelf, I would touch the medal and wonder about the man (or boy?) who wore it, whether he suffered much, whether he left a sweetheart or a child behind, what he did to earn this decoration. I wanted to know (still want to know) who he was, what his hopes and dreams had been, and whether the tiny, tiny connection I felt with him was just in my imagination. Much later I tried to find out what that medal was, to give myself one little scrap of knowledge of who this man might have been, but could find nothing. All I will ever have of him is this: a tiny cross dangling from a faded and grimy blue ribbon, the date it was given him inscribed in cursive on the back: 16 Dezember, my birthday.
Posted by jodi at November 11, 2006 07:59 PM | categories:
Comments
Well done.
Posted by: NWJR at November 12, 2006 08:18 AM
Wow! What an incredible story Jodie.
Posted by: Ektopia at November 12, 2006 12:37 PM
This is beautiful, jodi.
Posted by: liz at November 12, 2006 02:59 PM
This was very beautifully written. Thank you for sharing it. And it was good to see you last weekend! xo MJ
Posted by: MJ at November 14, 2006 03:50 PM
Thank you for sharing that story. It was moving and beautiful.
Posted by: Nanc at November 15, 2006 12:10 PM
You shared a thought and you cared , that was what counts once in a while.
The small things you can`t touch.
Posted by: Sandra at November 18, 2006 02:50 PM
You made me sneef. At work, even. Lovely story, thank you.
Posted by: Rabbitch at November 19, 2006 07:36 PM