manlycornhusk's blog post - Daddy's Dirty Little Secret War

It's the 50s. WW1 is still raw and bitter in the worlds memories. Germany is a nation torn, fragmented. My father, a young Air Force noncom. babysitting the line in the sand that would become The Cold War. East Germany, West German, East Berlin, West Berlin. A man meets a woman. They fall in love. They marry and have two children together. They divorce. End of story, right.

Wrong! The man was my father. The woman wasn't my mother. I didn't even know of her existance until long after she had died. A couple of years ago we were contacted by a German woman asking about our father. The Air Force had helped her find contacts in the United States through one of it's reunification programs. And then her story.............

After 45 years, I found that not only was I not the oldest child of my dad, I wasn't the second oldest. What I am is the middle sibling. That explains a lot.

My father and their mother loved each other at a time that communism was beginning to grow horns and become that fearful demon that television scared parents and children with well into the 60s. When the military found that she was East German they stepped in to stongly suggest that a seperation would be the only option open to my father. They branded her a spy because of her nationality. My father left her and two children. She eventually succumbed to a long illness and the two children were placed in foster homes. When they became adults, they searched each other out. In the late 50's, my father remarried and hid all of it from my mother and we three kids until the day he died.

In seven days, I will meet my older sister for the first time. We have corresponded but finally I will get to actually hug my older sister. Sadly, my older brother will not be able to make it this time. It scares me a little but I'm happy. I hope it turns out well.

To make a long story short. I have forgiven my father for what he did to them. I have set aside the betrayal I felt when it was exposed for the first time. 45 years, damn. All the time lost. So much to talk about, to make up for. I'm so glad I live to see this day.

Peace and Love and The Inevitable Reunion