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Above is a cartoon my father drew in 1954, just after marrying my mother. On stationary from their ship, he depicts my mother speaking in a charming French accent, harboring disdain for anything German, and in self-deprecating humor reveals himself as a grumpy "beast of burden," carrying the physical and economic load of marriage.

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The photo below is the MS Gripsholm, the ship that carried my mother to America in 1947. Pre-war, it was a luxury liner, and during World War II, the ship made over thirty trips to exchange prisoners of war.

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