For as long as I can remember my Great Aunt Thelma has been a huge factor in my life, both during the few shorts years I knew her and after her death. The main descriptions people give of her are driven and compassionate. She never married and spent her whole life striving to serve others as well as reach her utmost potential. You have likely heard me speak of her before.
Today I interviewed my Grandma, Thelma's only surviving sibling. I asked many questions, including this one I have always been afraid to ask,"did she have any romance in her life?"
"Why, yes!" my grandma said and her face lit up, waiting to tell me the dramatic story.
In 1939, at the age of 35, she left for her first trip to Europe for an international meeting of women. Her voyage to Europe was on the luxury ship the 'Queen Mary', and it was filled with movies stars, senators, and other elites of the world. On the boat she met a man from Yugoslavia who had been in Washington DC for some uncertain, but high-profile meetings. Thelma and the man fell in love, and he said he would find her once this ever present war ended. She received two letters from him, professing his love and asking about the possibility of marriage. After the 2 letters, she never heard from him again. (My grandma said she has one of the letters and will give to me).
In 1944, Thelma went back to Europe abroad the 'Queen Mary' again, but this time it was a troop ship and she was to spend the rest of the war working for the American Red Cross in Liverpool. She then spent 2 more years helping rebuild the continent. During that time she was invited to Buckingham Palace and met the King, Queen, and future Queen, drove a jeep alone all night to see the Nuremburg trials, and did much tiring work in Paris, Munich, and elsewhere.
- The 'Queen Mary' 1939. 
6 comments:
thelms this is beautiful. and thank you for using little women.
and i have full confidence that your lover will not die in a war and leave you only 2 letter :)
love you.
what the WOW!?!?!?!? i agree full heartedly with julianne....
thank you for recognizing the little women reference! i knew i could count on you!
Now i know if i ever meet a hot european lover not to let him go just because there is a war going on... lesson learned
I am becoming increasingly obsessed with family stories like this. I love how stories like this from our ancestry can inform our perspective on ourselves and the world around us. I think, when the stories are beautiful and positive like this one, it gives us a glimpse at our own eternal potential. So thanks for sharing this!! (And here's to holding out for an Italian artist or vagrant. :) )
can i just add from personal experience:
if you DO snatch a european lover, please ensure that you are actually on the same continent. it will make life a great deal easier.
just sayin' :)
Thelms, I am just now revisiting the world of blogs after quite an extended absence, and I love this! Your Aunt Thelma is amazing.
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