cool conversation

I had the most intersting conversation tonight with Maarten's step mom. Pien has to do a report on the bombing of Rotterdam (which I had no idea about) so she asked her grandpa if he had any stories from when that happened. So while he is telling her all about that Linda ( his wife) starts telling me what it was like for her during WWII. SO intersting!! She starts telling me about how when the air raid siren went off she and her mom would tip the couch over and hide under it since they didn't have a bomb shelter, in fact she was living in 4 different towns that got bombed during the course of the war. Can you imagine?? You leave to get away from it and then get bombed again. What a shame. Anyway, so she was telling me about being stuck at a train station because the siren went off again and the trains stopped running and how she and her parents had to walk several miles back to a relative's house that they were visiting. And how she would see German and American soldiers on a regular basis. And after they moved to the next area she and her friend would walk through the fields were the soldiers were and they would see where the trenches were and where the tents were and they would find pieces of shrapnel on the ground but they weren't allowed to touch anything they just had to walk past it all. I mean.. it was so so interesting talking to this lady and hearing her first hand experiences. Sure I read about the war in my history text books and yes I've seen the "Band of Brothers" HBO specials, but to hear a real life experience from the other side of the world where the war was actually taking place. Guys, it was truly remarkable. It made me so hungry to learn more about this area's history. The family is going to France for 10 days to ski and I think that while they are gone I might just take a few little history day trips. I mean, I am living in an area where there is so much history. Gosh. I still can't believe that conversation. Seeing her remember those memories and being so willing to share them, it was a precious gem. Certainly an added blessing to my day!