Epic Love Story

my beloved grandmother passed away one year ago this week. anyone who has had more than 3 conversations with me knows my love for my maternal grandparents borders on obsession. accordingly, i did not handle her death very well (i was kinda a wreck for about 2 months). as the year anniversary has approached, i have found myself working her into random conversations. also, i may or may not have forced RationalThought to look at pictures of her house for 20 minutes last week. but this post is less about her & more about some awesome people i met through her.

for me spring break equals florida. almost every year of my childhood we traveled to Mt.Dora and stayed in the little pink cottage for a week. we usually spent one day at Disney World, one day at the hot springs, and the rest of the days playing in the next door neighbors pool. these neighbors, the Huebners, were almost as much a part of my florida world as my grandparents were. one day my grandmother told me about how they met:

during world war II Teresea was a young nurse living in what was then Czechoslovakia. after the nazi army invaded, she began working at a military hospital. while there she met Martin, an injured German solider, and they fell deeply in love. when Martin finished his convalescence he was sent back to the front, but before leaving he gave Teresea his sister's address in Berlin and asked her to try to find him after the war. (at this point, the war was ending and he knew a former German solider would not be welcome back in Czechoslovakia). when the war ended, Teresea set off to find Martin. the railways and roads had been bombed so she decided to walk. along her way she met some American GIs who let her spend the night in one of their tents and gave her food (after that night she decided she loved Americans and America). after several weeks of walking through war-torn lands, she arrived in Berlin only to discover she had lost the piece of paper with Martin's sister's address on it. not knowing anyone in Berlin, she spent the next 2 days wandering around the city asking everyone she saw if they knew Clara Huebner. eventually, she found someone who knew her and he took Teresea to Clara's house where she was reunited with Martin. they married in Berlin and eventually immigrated to the States.

i just love how ridiculously dramatic their story is. if i ever write a screenplay it will be based on Teresea and Martin (and Joe Wright will direct it). can you imagine the scene when she finally sees Martin again in Berlin? cue the crane shot and sweeping music... now.

love & beauty

the temple in Atlanta has been closed for the past 2 years for remodeling, but it is done and we are in the middle of the open house before it's rededication. friday was my stake's day to work at the open house. i helped on the afternoon/evening shift. mostly i just stood on the sidewalk and gave people directions. honestly, i kinda felt like a temple square missionary just saying hello to people as they walked by. it made me glad i was not a temple square missionary.

i did get to sneak onto a tour group and i found myself looking forward to the temple being open again. since it has been closed i have only really been to the temple once. for me, going to the temple does not count if i go with other people - i find it distracting to know anyone else there. and with the closest temple 2.5 hours away, going alone was not very realistic. my last year in college i went to the temple every other tuesday afternoon, always by myself. when i think back on how emotionally taxing that year was, i am so grateful i had the luxury of a temple being 5 minutes from my house. even though i get bored and tend to nap during the beginning, there is something about being there that helps me feel calmer. it is unexplainable, but it is there. and i am glad it can be in my life again.

in case you were wondering...

the fat one still likes to eat, as does the not-so-fat one

but, they are not very fat anymore... sad