Sunday Secrets

It's Sunday, and I just finished reading the Sunday Secrets at http://postsecret.blogspot.com/.
Post Secret is one of those guilty pleasures that make the weekend special.

So here's a convoluted secret from long, long ago:

My Dad came from an immigrant Czechoslovakian family. Language barriers, lots of kids, no money- and the father picked up and left the family, leaving his unstable wife to raise the kids as best she could. My Dad's dad was always referred to as a "skeleton in the closet." Needless to say, as a young child I spent time inspecting the closets, making sure there were no skeletons hanging around in there.

My Dad was the youngest and probably the cutest, very charming and with a great smile. He married my mom, and shortly thereafter was drafted to fight in WWII. He was stationed with Patton's army in Europe. He drove a tank.

He never talked much about the war, except that during the final days, and during the "clean-up" - he met a Countess, who lived in a castle in Czechoslovakia, where he was stationed. Since he spoke Czech, they hit it off immediately, and when he left, she gave him some lovely jewelry to take home to his wife. So, amongst the war memorablia - a bloodied Nazi armband, medals and coins, two large and heavy swords from the 17th century (I think) - he brought my mother the Countess' jewelry. A poison ring, gold beads, cut crystal beads with earrings to match- beautiful, museum quality, fine jewelry. The absolute best she would ever have.

Over the years, my sister and I would be allowed to play dress-up with it, try it on, pretending we were girls in a castle, in Europe. ( We were also reminded to clean our plates because "children are starving in Europe!")

My Mom & my Dad have both passed on now. So we can't ask them what really happened back then. But the story of the Countess and my young and handsome father might have been a good start for a Sunday Secret-- Don't you think?