6 Comments

What a great vignette! You did an expert job of transporting the reader from 2020s COVID-lockdown in the U.S,. to Belgium in 1938, via your aunts' homes in the 1960s and 1970s. My heart went out to your 10-year old father, trying to cope with the upheavals in his childhood, and to him as an elderly man, reliving that pain and struggling with the burden of those memories.

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Beautiful. I’m crying. You nailed them.

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Thank you for sharing this, Jen. This is such an important story and so powerfully communicates the decades-long memories that your father has carried with him. It is meaningful to hear this personal account that gives voice to a part of history that should be remembered. I am looking forward to the next installment.

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Aug 14, 2023·edited Aug 14, 2023Liked by Jen

Thank you, Jen, for this lovely, elegiac meditation on love, aging, and memory. I love how you took a single question (“So, about that check…”) and led us poignantly through your family’s journey. You are accepting the mantle of memory keeping with wisdom and grace.

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This was enthralling. I felt I was listening to you tell it, Jennifer. Thank you for writing it and sharing it. These stories must never be forgotten. I will keep reading as you post.

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Beautifully written. Deeply moving on many levels.

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