Good luck homing pigeon

Epilogue-2015

Janek passed away in the December of '55'. We never got to see him in his final hours; just a telephone call from Mieka to inform us that the Owl had flown. We did however, go to his funeral in Krakow. In a makeshift synagogue that was still being rebuilt, we paid our respects before returning with heavy hearts, back to Paris. He was the second member of The Flock to leave the nest. There wasn't a day that went by that we didn't remember the way he brought warmth to a room with mere words.

Mieka and Emil had their first child just a year later. A rosy-faced, little boy; strong, healthy and sweet-natured. They emigrated to Holland when their baby was but a few weeks old-they called him Janek. Every month we get long, detailed letters from them. Describing their lives in Amsterdam, Emil's new job as a foreman in a spice factory. We corresponded with them until Mieka's death in 2012. She was ninety two years old.

My father never returned from England after the war, nor had he reunited with mama. After we made contact with him through an old associate, mama was devastated to find that he'd fallen in love with another. A member of the woman's home-army, Lottie Ames. Briana and I had met him and Lottie every second year or so for Hanukah celebrations, but we could never quite forgive him for taking another woman whilst mama was with us; suffering far more than he could ever imagine. I wouldn't lie; when I found out about papa's new spouse, I resented him even more than I did during the war. Nevertheless, I managed to put my anger aside and eventually, I had my father back. That wasn't to say mama never found love again! Just a year after her divorce was finalized, she'd met Phillip. A born Englishman who was enchanted by mama from the start. They never married, but they were together until the day they died. Despite being apart, my parents were lucky. Lucky their hearts could heal and recognise love in others.

Andre and Sandrine had two more children; a boy, Hiro in 56, and a little girl Blossom, in 59. They spent a majority of time in Poland before finally coming back to France to spend their golden years with us. Between them, they had eight grandchildren; Blossom of course, being the very last of them to marry and have her own little girl. Sandrine worked as a respected dessert chef well into her retirement in 2002; even going as far as to write her own recipe book! And Andre, a husband as supportive as he, ended up changing careers to contribute to her generous income. He went from working in a bank to managing the restaurant Sandrine herself was working at. They now live next door to us. Sandrine coming over almost every day so we could complain at how our children didn't visit enough and Andre, still as robust as ever, tending to his garden every day, garnishing it with a new lawn gnome every fortnight.

We'd never seen Dmitri after Auschwitz. After he was handed over to the British, the last we'd heard of him was that he was taken to a P.O.W camp to be interrogated. We didn't know if he was imprisoned for his role in the camp, if he'd left Europe for a new life; we didn't even know if he was still alive to this day. I didn't expect him to find us again. He might've been in love with my sister, but after the war ended, Briana didn't care whether or not she did see her former, Nazi lover again. She'd found happiness-the right kind of happiness. If Dmitri came back into her life, who knew what could've happened? I never owed him anything. But after all we've been through, I did wish he'd found some sort of clarity. It was something he never knew he needed.

My sister married Nolan Yule; another Englishman. A man she described as 'the real love of her life'. They had two children; both beautifully gifted in everything they did. After becoming a nurse in the Auschwitz infirmary, she decided to get an actual nursing degree and put the profession to much better use. She retired from her profession a year after Sandrine, and now opted to spend her days as the ideal grandmamma for her equally gifted grandchildren. Thanks to our granddaughters extensive knowledge into something called 'Skype' we still talked regularly. Most of the time from Briana's kitchen as she tried out a new cake recipe every week.