Written 2014-04-26

Dad’s Return Home after WW II

Not all of the memories from this time are so depressing. But times were different and difficult then. Maybe that was what made the good times even better. Some of these memories are extremely short, no real details, but always bringing a smile to our faces when my mother and father would repeat them again.

When the end of the war in Europe was announced on VE Day (Victory in Europe), the families would anxiously await the return of their sons, daughters and husbands. Such was the case with my father’s family. But there were months before many of the enlisted men started to return. My Grandmother Duncan would not take down the Christmas tree until my father returned home. It turns out he didn’t return to Pittsburgh until July. I can only imagine what that tree must have looked like, bare branches with ornaments and tinsel.