Apparently, the farmer was charging the refugees exorbadant fees for the barn accommodations and food was scarce. Our dad never said what transpired between the American soldiers and the Bavarian farmer, but life radically improved for Mother's refugee group thereafter.
For three weeks our parents, Maria and Joe, saw a lot of each other, fell in love and made some committments. Our dad was then re-deployed 42 miles away. We were told our mother followed the entire distance by foot.
Unfortunately, Dad contracted a life-threatening fever and was shipped to an Army hospital in France. He was gone. Mother was devistated. Apparently, Dad was to be flown back to the United States as a casualty. By then the war in Europe was over. There must have been something to their relationship because by whatever means a lowly tech corporal had in Patton's 3rd Army, he got a message to our mother.
Maria was to refugee to Army headquarters in Franfurt, Germany. Dad would send for her as a war bride. We're told mother hitch-hiked the entire way.
The wait in Frankfurt was long. Mother was hired as clerical support for the US Army. That particular job she was proud of her entire life. Our father re-opened his grocery store on Plymouth Avenue in North Minneapolis and waited through months of red tape for his war bride.
Finally Maria and Joe were united in 1947. Maria was one of Minnesota's first war brides. They lived in North Minneapolis and operated the grocery store. They had us two children and several grandchildren.
Joe Greenstein passed away in 1980. The former grocer and city councilman had an annual pumpkin giveaway that earned him fame in the Twin Cities.
Maria passed away in 1997. Through the 1950's and 1960's she worked quite hard at bringing her entire family to America from communist Poland. She was a loving wife and mother.
We children often joke about what if Maria didn't wash her feet in the Danube River that day? Of course, we wouldn't be here and their romantic story would never be told.
