Upcoming Book, "Shine Through the Shadows"

8 October, 1944

Brestowatz

LEAVING

“Where are the papers from your sister in the United States?  Those letters are very important, Where are they? We need them."  Rosal frantically asked her mother. 

Katharina replied,  "What do you want with those papers? We will never come together to the United States”.

 Katharina realized  by the serious sense of urgency in her eldest daughter’s voice, that the letters her sister Teresa wrote from Los Angeles must not be left behind. They could not leave Yugoslavia without them.  Drawing her 4 month old child, Gerhard, closer to her breast,

Katharina replied, "The letters are in my dresser drawer."

 Rosal immediately went back into their simple dirt-floored home on Friedhof Strausse. A home filled with family memories and the lingering aroma of supper yet in the air. She

reached into the top dresser drawer, grabbed the treasured correspondence,

tied into a bundle with a piece of twine. She returned moments later with more

blankets and pillows. "Why are you bringing all that stuff?" Katharina remarked. "The Town Mayor said we would only be gone a few days."

Climbing back onto the one-horse wagon with her 7 siblings, Nick, Loni, Frank, Lani, Joe, Tony and three year old Horst, Rosal caught her breath, turned and sadly said, "Mother, we will

never return here again.-----------."