legacies

[blankslate_2010]

So eleven years into this project I finally realize that my process has gotten in the way of actually completing it.  My great uncle left a journal behind when he died in World War II Germany after his plane crashed in the Black Forest and for the next 60 years it remained hidden from the family, hidden from the public.  When my grandmother died and the family decided that I was the most fitting person to take possession of the journal (as if there should have been any question on this area), i coveted it as well in fear.  I was afraid that I was interested in it for the wrong reasons, that i could not or would not be able to do it justice, that I didn't know what I was talking about.  Yet I continued to go to the annual reunions, a tradition long since established in the late 1990's when i was fist given the journal to transcribe (albeit unsactioned).  In these reunions, I spent time with the World War II Veterans that had served with my great uncle, I became friends with the descendents of his crew, I learned about my family.  Over time something magical happened and I learned that the initial mission that I had set out on was to learn about him and my family but it turned into a love affair that has changed my life forever.  The old beat up green notebook used to chronicle the last eight months of my uncles life is non-descript and unassuming but its pages within tell the stories of daily life at Wendling Airbase.  It celebrates the bonds of friendship and as one veteran tearfully stated, it proved that he had friends and many great times during the war.

This summer I will continue to celebrate my friends, I will celebrate my legacy.