Two Brave Women

Many women inspire me in my life, but I would be amiss if I didn’t start talking about an experience my mother had when she was a teenager. For some context, my maternal grandmother was French and married my American grandfather shortly after WWII. They met during the end of the war while my grandfather was stationed there to help build airfields for the Allied planes to land on. They lived in America and had three children, the oldest being my gentle mother.

In the summer before her senior year, she and the rest of her family went to France to visit my great-grandparents for vacation. You should also note that this trip took place in the 1960’s.

During that vacation, one of my grandmother’s friends came to visit and almost immediately began to bash the USA. Any negative thing that she could think of about America went into her long rant. My grandmother was speechless during her diatribe but my mother, who is generally mild-mannered, was not. My mother proceeded to point out to my grandmother’s friend where she was wrong and even said that it was far from ill-mannered to criticize someone else’s homeland.

My grandmother’s friend's response was, “Why do you care what I say? You’re French!”

“No, I’m not. I’m an American,” answered my mother.

My grandmother’s friend shrugged, threw up her hands, and left shortly after. My grandmother then told my mother that she was extremely proud of her.

The reason this story of my mother struck a chord with me is that she is a polite woman who never yells, who is kind and serving, and who taught me to respect and be considerate of others. But there she was, standing up to a woman her mother’s age, firmly standing her ground to protect her nation. And she even won the confrontation.

It inspires me, who is also generally mild-mannered, to have the strength and hope that I too can have the courage to stand for what I believe is right.

The next woman I want to talk about is my grandmother, the same one I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, I have never met her, since she died before I was born due to cancer. But from what my mother has told me about her, she had to be a very brave woman.

As I stated before, my mother grew up during Nazi Germany’s occupation of France during WWII and it was naturally a tough time for her. Not only were a lot of goods rationed, but she often had to wait in line to receive these goods for hours. She would be lucky if her family's ration of two eggs weren't rotten.

Towards the end of the war, her best friend convinced her to go to a USO dance where American soldiers happened to be attending. One of these friends happened to my grandfather and even though French was his worst subject in school and my grandmother knew very little English, they fell in love. My grandfather eventually was stationed elsewhere but whenever he could, he got a pass back to see my grandmother. After the war was finally over, they got engaged. My grandfather had to go home with the rest of the troops though, and it took a year for my mother’s paperwork to go through before she could fly to America too. They then got married and had a happy married life.

To not only be forced to live with Nazis in control of your hometown, but to also move to a different country with a different culture and language, it had to take a lot of bravery. I admit, if I were in her place, I don’t know if I could do that, to deal with all that fear and uncertainty. But maybe, just maybe, if I look to her for inspiration, I can too find the courage to live through tough times and make life-changing decisions.

I am glad that I have these two women in my life.