A History Lesson at Work

I had a man in my office today to whom I have had the privilege to provide my professional services for more than two decades.  He is a native Norwegian.  He was born in 1929.  For some reason it came to my mind to ask him when he was born.  He told me and then I asked if he was there during the early 1940's when the Nazi's invaded Norway.  He said he was a young boy then, an early teenager and he remembers it vividly.  He related an incident when the German army was throwing anti aircraft fire at bombers coming from England.  He said that sometimes they would fall to the earth and then explode.  One night, it was 1 AM and there was tremendous noise during a bombing raid and suddenly there was a big explosion across the street.  He said a lovely family lived there, but fortunately they had left for the country leaving an older gentleman there.  The explosion killed him.  But he went on to say that he thought that he was going to die for sure that night.  Then he said the worst thing was the Gestapo.  They were brutal; they would rape the women and torture the men.  But, he said he remembered the everyday, run of the mill German soldier as nice people who were there because they had to be.

Recently this man's wife has suffered a stroke and she requires his help.  The greatest thing he said during his visit today was that "she is my first priority".  And so it is and should be.  Later that afternoon I kind of said to my staff members who were listening to his stories.  "Quite a history lesson, huh?"  They all said they couldn't imagine living through something like that.