Have you ever been surprised by a relative's life story?

[love_conquers_lust]

I've mentioned my late Japanese aunt in law a few times on this site. I'd never realized the remarkable life she'd lived before I’d read her obituary, as well as my Uncle.

They met while she worked as a clerk/courier for a florist in Okinawa. She was actually born in Peking and started school in Manchuria because of bombings in Tokyo. Her father was a Japanese diplomat. She met my Uncle collecting/delivering orders from multiple stations and my Uncle's was the last stop on her route...

Her father had hired a tutor for her and her sisters to learn English because he’d instructed her to look to the East for directions…because the United States was in charge after WWII. My Uncle also visited Eastern bloc countries. He said he gained a deeper appreciation for the United States and what the free world afforded him after witnessing what communism does to people.

By the end of his life, he was a farmer's son who'd left St. Louis when he was drafted by the Army, was stationed in Okinawa and Viet Nam, met his future wife, travelled to over 50 different countries, and finally returned to St. Louis after having travelled the world.

What stuck out for me was some parting wisdom he shared with me this past holiday which pretty much summed up his life:

"Take a chance!"

[IslaTheWitch]

My grandparents needed to leave their homes in current Lithuania territory (before WWII, it was Poland territory) shortly after WWII started. My grandma was the sole daughter of an aristocratic family, and degenerate Russian soldiers took their whole wealth, together with the life of her parents. She met my grandpa when she was running away. My grandpa was taking care of her, and they both volunteered to be Polish partisan troops. During a war, my grandpa was an active soldier and was injured, and my grandma was transporting unique goods (mainly cigarettes and alcohol) to troops in the woods. Because she was often checked by German or Russian patrols (depending on when they were stationed), she needed to learn how to smoke cigarettes to prove they were for her.

They married after the war and created their new homeland in the city on Poland's eastern border.

They taught me that I should speak in enemies' languages :D for them, it meant German and Russian.

[exitseven]

My grandparents all were immigrants. They all had some pretty amazing stories about coming to the US and becoming citizens. I was surprised to learn that my paternal grandmother was a schoolteacher in Italy before she came here.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[NathanDavis]

Yes.