RIGHT BEFORE the United States of America invaded Occupied France there was a man from Nowhere, Alabama who got married to a beautiful woman, also from Nowhere. He was a coal miner, but then he enlisted in the Army. She was a junior in high school.
They looked like this:
I suppose I could say that he was from Mulga, and she was from Edgewater, but those are old names, and forgotten: as much as saying Ensley, Pratt City, Sandusky, Forestdale. The only thing that matters is that they loved each other. The man was twenty; the woman, fifteen. And the man carried this photo beneath his belt buckle while he marched through Europe:
While the man trod through obscurities—can you imagine the places you would visit if you walked through America?—the woman worked, to her delight, in a photographer’s studio, where one of her duties was to make sure everything was functioning well with the film and the formula that day. And so there are many photos of her, dressed in different ways, colored for variety:
Sometimes the man would send her pictures. This one, from his country’s triumphant march towards the heart of Germany, her enemy:
Or this one, where he is exhausted, and has scribbled on the back “our gun.” Seventy years after the photograph is taken his only daughter would see it and say, “I never thought that picture looked like daddy. He never stood that way—he never slumped. I never saw him look so tired.” (And that despite thirty years of twelve hour days and six-day weeks, underground in the mines).
While everyone agrees that this photo looks just like him:
And everyone agrees that these look just like her (even until now, nearly sixty years later):
The man came home, and a few years later he and the woman had a little girl, and then a boy, and then two more boys, and he ran the coal mines he worked in as a young man, and she ran a flower shop, and as she grew older, became a nurse. In time, their eldest boy had a boy; I am that boy, and this is my family.
They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
“A soldier’s life is terrible hard,”
says Alice.—A. A. Milne, When We Were Very Young.
SHE IS ADORABLE. And you look so much like your grandfather!
These are great! I love those color-ed photographs. And yeah, you can definitely see the Gorjus family resemblance.
I wish I was prepared for this. I’m crying at my desk because the emotions are just too much. too much and too wonderful. I miss him a lot, you know. I miss him a lot…
i love this i love this i love this!
Well done, Gorjus.
this is the beautiful story you were telling us about? it’s even prettier than i’d made up inside my head.
Thank you, son, I love you.
Man, what are you doing? I’m all misty-eyed. Those are some fantastic images. Such romance and grace. That is some wonderful stuff you have there.
As an army brat who’s seen more than my share of very similar photos, I just cannot imagine a more beautiful essay. It’s unbearably touching. Thank you.
pretty extraordinary.
Hello, just stopping by because I visit Pinky regularly and she made a mention of this post. Thank you for sharing those wonderful pictures! What a wonderful tribute!
Lovely.
I love this. Your grandparents look like movie stars.
It has and always will be about destiny and legacy wrapped with love – my heart is deeply stirred – a memory forever – love you more…..
Just happend to come across your website and it put a smile on my face. Nicely done
Absolutely beautiful entry. I actually came here searching for the Christopher Robin poem text. Thank you!