JoanOfSarcasm

My grandmother, a Brit who lived through the Blitz (a bomb actually fell on the family house but didn't explode), met and fell in love with a German soldier during the war. They kept in touch via letters after the war and until his death about 8 years ago (she is 82). His widowed wife still writes my grandmother. It's pretty incredible.

Edit: wow, amazing number of replies! Next time I see her I will ask her about an AMA. She is an amazing woman, when I consider all she's been through. I don't ask her about the war much because it seems like it may be one of those painful or sensitive things, but she does let stories slip occasionally, like this one, the first time she saw an American soldier, or when she found a pack of condoms and brought them to her mum thinking they were balloons.

Edit 2: I accidentally accidentally a word.

Hi Jewel!

As a fellow food lover, what wine did you choose for this AMA? And what is the best restaurant you've eaten at?

Thank you for doing this AMA. My mom is paraplegic due to contracting polio back in the 50s (she turns 61 this year, IIRC). Vaccines just weren't available at the time and her household situation wasn't good (her mother was an immigrant who wasn't allowed to work by her abusive husband).

I'm 24 and have an auto-immune disease that puts me at a much higher risk for contracting these diseases from anti-vaccination folks. I really think people have forgotten how terrible these diseases were and think they aren't a problem anymore due to how uncommon they are now, thanks to the vaccinations.