Before a session with s new oil painting student begins, I explain that each should select a subject, that when finished as a painting, would be nice to hang on a wall at home or in an office.
I met Anna Marie at a Senior Citizen Center. Her choice was a scene from Germany as that had been her childhood home. I had noticed that she had a heavy accent which reminded me of my older German relatives who had come to Kentucky after the Second World War.
They came to Kentucky, as the story goes because after finding a tin of rations they felt if food were this good in America they had to make the journey there for a new life.
Anna Marie had a different story that her fellow students privately shared with me during the following weeks of classes. During the war, because of bombings on Berlin, Anna Marie took her children to the country outside the city in hopes of escaping the danger. One morning she was in the loft of the barn when an allied plane strafed the area and a government vehicle parked outside the barn. Anna Marie was injured and as a result, part of her leg was amputated.
Learning the reason for her limp gave me pause for remembering those moments in my childhood when although my relatives were of German descent, I bore great hatred for that country and all who lived there. John Wayne and the Flying Tigers were my heroes and “Johnny Got A Zero” was a song popular on the radio.
Standing beside this humble woman who was enjoying painting a memory of her beloved country made me wonder,” How could she have ever been my enemy?”