We celebrated Arsen's Birthday as a family for the 56th time on July 31st. By my calculation, Arsen and I have spent more than twice as many years together than the number of years we've spent apart -- not knowing of -- or even having met--each other. This last happened to be Arsen's 80th!
We both happened to briefly live in Germany as children after WWII, but unaware of each other's existence. Arsen and his family had arrived in Germany from Hungary, my family and I, from Poland a few months earlier.
Decades had passed since a curious fate -- had caused us to pass each other just a few miles distant during WW II; but that same fare had then put the distance of the Atlantic Ocean between us. Some years later, destiny again worked to bring us together in the little German town of Baumholder, where we happened to pass a few words on the phone now and then, while both of us were working as part of the US Army Military Post in Baumholder: Arsen as a member of the US military, was secretary to the US Army's Chief Military Officer, me as the German civilian secretary for the Post Commander.
Our first face-to-face meeting, by another curious coincidence, occurred at the threshold to my office. One afternoon Arsen appeared there, with papers and coffee, for a meeting between his General with my boss, the Post Commander. He and I literally ran into each other... and thus began our life together. It has led us, by many circuitous miles over land and ocean, to the village of Wolverine Lake, here in Michigan, where we are happy, love our neighbors and intend to stay for the next decade of our life.
That in a nutshell is the story of a family....
