Greetings, everyone!
Today, I bought an old magazine... The cover story is about my home country, offering an incredible portrayal of Romania's complex society before World War II. The Boy of Rumania is the age of my grandfather at that time, and comes from the same region. It could be, perhaps, my grandfather in 1939 - but this is only a speculation.
My grandfather was born in 1929 in a family of peasants who owned land, had a lucrative farm, and accumulated capital. His father bought grains for the German army and, for sure, made a profit out of it - only to be executed after the war by the soviets. Grandfather married in the village and worked the land till the day when communists came and took it by force. He refused to give them the land and fought for a short time as a partisan, but returned home to raise five kids in a time of tough famine. He had to crush stones with a sledgehammer for a living... Yet, he survived to see the fall of communism and watched the execution of the dictator, whom he knew personally as they grew up in the same village. He got the land back and died of old age at 90 years old. No matter what... we never give up!
I took the liberty of sharing the captivating pictures from Life magazine.
Enjoy!
