There is so much I don’t know about my own parents. While they were alive I just wasn’t interested enough to ask them the questions that would have provided the perspective I now wish I had.
With John and Clara Schmidt (Marlena’s parents) the situation is very different. She did invest in meaningful conversations with them toward the end of their lives. In addition an extensive written record exists about them in libraries and from them in the many personal documents they left behind.
While I was fortunate enough know them personally for several years toward the end of their lives I am now coming to know them so much better as we dig into the records they left behind.
These very unusual adventuresome people offer us a way of seeing live well worth the effort required to come to know them.