Last days of April and the 1st of May my family and me were on guided tour in Athens/Greece and nearby islands of Hydra, Poros and Egina to see some very famous ancient places and exciting landscapes.
Since those days were full of memorable and unexpected, emotional moments I would like to share some of them with you.
It goes without saying that they were even more exciting to me for they were connected with history, wars...planes and people. For people we meet, their memory, feelings and emotions shared with others is what really counts in one's life.
Here is the story part 1.
We spend one day on a sea cruise from Athens to 3 beautiful islands. Wonderful weather, saxophone playing in the background and drinks available makes you feel absolutely good.
Wandering at the stern of the boat I found a free seat and sat right by a lone lady and we started to chat. It turned out she was an American, born in Germany, living in California for 48 years.
We had a great time talking about the fates of our ancestors and I told her about my grandpa who left Poland in 1939 after the lost September campaign to become so called "Sikorski's Tourist", going trough Romania, Greece (stay tuned for another insight story in Part 2!), France to Britain to fight in 1st Polish Arnoured Division in the West. This time her father was a German soldier fighting in 1941 in Greece, Creta and North Africa where finally became a POW of the USA Army. She married an American and moved to USA.
Her husband died two years ago.
I told her about my interest in historic military aviation, our Forum, the games we play and mentined about MvR house in Świdnica I had visited with Mike and Donna recently.
When I was telling her about MvR collection of shot down planes artifacts she told me...
"You know, my husband was a collector of old things. One day he was given a piece of old plane canvas with an Indian head. I know it was the emblem of Escadrille Lafayette. I watched the film Flyboys and saw this Indian head.
I still keep it, not knowing what to do with it. Called Christie's, but they refused to get it on auction for I do not have a certificate of legal origin."
So Ursula, for this is her name, still has it. We exchanged emails and she promised to send me a picture of the canvas. Could you believe?!
Below is a photo of us chatting, taken by my wife.
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