On Being There

Thankfully some of us are here; sadly we mourn the ones who left us as if making their final exit in a play leaving the stage in numb silence. Yes they were here born after the war to survivors who escaped the barbaric conditions; several ironically were born as a consequence of families torn apart by the war; survivors remarrying having children with another partner. Not all, some survivors married for the first time after the war, having lost a majority if not all their immediate family members; parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces then we came, a consolation prize? the second generation. The second generation growing up traumatized by brutalized pain unspoken feeling guilt without understanding why. Yes children of survivors lived misunderstood.

ONI