Thanks to my grandfather’s friend, Joseph Beauregard, I’ve been able to identify the majority of the men in the Germany/France photographs.
The men are:
Pretty cool.
I will try to link a copy of the book one of these days.
Remember a few weeks ago when I said I was writing letters to some men whose names we had found among my grandfather’s things. I figured if anything, I might connect with the men’s families.
One of the men was the third and only living member of “The Big Three”, which consisted of my grandfather, Jim Zanky and Joseph Beauregard. Jim Zanky’s daughter and granddaughter had both contacted me through flickr, but we had no communication with Joseph Beauregard… Until now.
This evening, a strange phone number came up on my caller id. I have been receiving a lot of wrong numbers recently, but this was not one of those cases. It was Joseph Beauregard himself calling me. I am not sure who was more thrilled by the reconnecting of our families, but I know I have a perma-grin plastered on my face right now. He plans to go through some of his papers to look for information or names he can share. At the end of the phone conversation, we both promised to stay in touch.
It felt good talking to someone who knew my grandfather and who has such wonderful memories of him. And on Valentine’s Day, a day I usually ignore? I feel it was a special Valentine nudged along by Grampy.
While compiling Meeting my grandfather, I looked through my own photo albums for photographs of myself with Grampy. I came across very few but the majority had one thing in common. Instead of looking straight at the camera for the photo, Grampy is looking at me. The looks on his face could represent a wide range of emotions, but he is focusing on me in the moment, not for some future memory or proof of attendance. That alone makes the tears well.
This particular photo was taken at my confirmation about two years before he died.
Back in September, I posted about how Jim Zanky’s granddaughter had found the photographs of him that I had posted on flickr. This week, Jim Zanky’s daughter found them. A small piece of the puzzle has been found.
Jim Zanky and my grandfather were good friends - maybe even best friends. They met during the war. After the war, before family life got in the way, they visited each other and their families. Years later, my father visited them while in the service. Zanky’s daughter even mentioned my father’s visit in her email. The connection is still strong, even with the younger generations and years of no contact.
My grandfather and I on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France sixty-one years apart.
Trying to find the same places as in his photographs was fun and tricky, but well worth the sense of continuity.
Among my grandfather’s things was a slip of paper with the following statement on it.
If you want your children to follow in your footsteps, be very careful where you place your feet.
I think he placed his feet quite well.
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