No one Ever Wants to Recognize It, But It Keeps Coming Back
How a friend’s old photos conjure such sorrow
Evening dog walks usually clear my mind and restore my spirit, but this time it was different.
I was carrying a quiet sense of melancholy, and my dog Nanuk knew something was amiss in my stride and lack of enthusiasm.
When we reached our favorite tree, nicknamed the “Tree of Hope,” I slid onto a nearby park bench to collect my thoughts.
Earlier in the day, I examined a box of old WWII photos that my friend Joe loaned me. The photos were taken by Howard W. Cottle, who was a relative of Joe’s first wife.
Some of the photos were assembled in a tattered album. The black pages were frayed and brittle, but the photo captions were still legible and beautifully typed.
Flipping through the pages, reading the captions, and studying the vintage photos transported me to the past. When tyranny reared its ugly head, to destroy world order, and threaten democracies and peace.
Back then, our world descended into the hellscape of war, with its bombed-out cities…
