Chapter 15: Rolfe
September 21, 1941
Dear Liesl I just wanted to inform you that I will be coming to America with my family in a few months. I am excited and hoping I will be able to see you. I will talk to you more about all this later, but now I have to go. I love you Liesl and miss you dearly.
Yours truly,
Rolfe
That is what the letter said. I stared at it, rereading it, making sure I had heard correctly. He was coming to America with his family? How completely wonderful. I really miss him and want to see him again. I barley heard Mother calling I was in so much shock.
"Liesl, your Father wants to talk to us all." She yelled up to me.
"I will be right down Mother." I entered the room and was surprised to see my whole family sitting down waiting for me. Father smiled up at us.
"Our papers have been passed for becoming citizens. Now all we have to do is sign this. I just want to make sure; before I sign that we are planning on staying here. We have a beautiful house here and I am very happy. I doubt the War is going to end soon so we probably will never return to Austria to live there. Does everyone want to live here and become Americans?" Father asked. Seven heads nodded and Rosemarie grinned and smiled. "And you my darling?" Father asked and looked up at Mother. Mother walked over and sat next to him.
"Well I love it here and even though I will always love Austria, I would love to be American. The question is what do you want my dear?" She asked. Father smiled at her.
"I feel the same way dear. My home is wherever my family is and my family is right here in America. So it's settled then I will sign these and send them in." Father said. There were many cheers from us as we got up to move on with the day. Before we left Maria mentioned that she was pregnant again. Of course she made it seem like it was no big deal, but we all were excited and all flew into her arms. So this has been a very interesting day maybe my twentieth year will be as interesting as my sixteenth. Oh my goodness I am twenty. My, years are flying by literally. Well I guess I should stop writing for a while and go and talk some more with my wonderful family.
November 24, 1941
Well it is Thanksgiving today and strangely enough today we became official American citizens today!! We have so much to be thankful for. I helped Mother prepare a large feast for us all and we all ate and ate. Then we surrounded the fire and sang some songs. Father today got a letter that said they would love to have him in the American Navy. They told him he would be welcome to report to the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in two days. Mother just looked at him with worry in her eyes. Father looked up at her.
"What my dear? Do you not want me to go?" He asked.
"Darling please don't, we are in the middle of a war. I don't want to see you hurt. You know you would be fighting against your old Navy?" She asked.
"My dear, my old Navy sided with the wrong country I am in full support of America. Anyways we are not even involved with the war now." He told her.
"Georg please no don't go," Maria said and flung her arms around him. "It is only a matter of time before we get into the war. Besides I love you too much to let you go off to Hawaii." Mother was almost in tears. Father started to laugh a little.
"Maria you think I would honestly go and leave you here with ten children and one more coming along just to be in the Navy again? There is no way, my love, that I would ever be separated from you by choice. Of course I won't go. I only wanted to see how much pleading I could get out of you." He said with a smirk.
"Oh you wicked man." Mother glared at him, but the glare vanished when she looked at his loving face.
"I love you Maria." With that he took her and kissed her fully on the lips. That seems to be how they always end up settling their arguments. Well if you could call them arguments at all. They don't really argue over disagreements they just talk. Once they are done talking they seem to be even more in love with each other than they were before the disagreement, if that is possible. They are already so much in love with each other. I am very glad he is not going.
I always get so excited on Thanksgiving because that means the advent season is right around the corner. I absolutely love Christmas season. I heard from Rolfe and he is arriving around December sixth. I am so excited his family is coming up here to visit us all and stay here for a couple of days. I can hardly wait! Everything is going great. If only the war could be over in Europe. It would be nice to not have to worry at all. Even though we are thousands of miles away in America I still worry about danger.
December 7, 1941
Oh my! Rolfe and his family are safely here. They got through Ellis Island late yesterday night. I am so grateful there ship was not late because today someone bombed Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is a Naval base in Hawaii. I am not sure what is happening now but Father says that it was Japan who bombed us. I just pray that everything will be all right.
December 9, 1941
Well the United States is now officially involved in this war. Father told us that today. He said luckily we were most likely safe because the Americans would go to Europe to fight and we weren't fighting on our home soil. Mother has been praying a lot during the last few days. I think she is thankful Father was not in the Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor. There was a lot of Mother saying, "I told you so" today. Today we heard that America was going to enter the war. Mother pointed out that perhaps if America entered the war it would end quicker and we all hope that is the case. Father is not happy. I think he feels very bad for even trying to trick Mother into believing that he was going to Pearl Harbor. The second Mother heard about the bombing she fell into Father's arms and cried. She told us we were very blessed that our Father was still here, as he could have easily been one of the lives lost there. We also have been grieving for all the families who lost loved ones from that terrible event. How cruel. I hate war. I really hate it. Father always told me how rotten it was and how it was his sincere hope that after WWI everything would be peaceful. I always thought it was so cool to have a Father involved with the Navy and the war. Now though I realize how dangerous it must have been for Father. I am so glad he chose to stay with us. I really just pray that America helps the war be over with as soon as possible.
December 26, 1941
Well Christmas was beautiful. We are really just so thankful for all we have. God has blessed my family without a doubt. We are continuing to sing on tour we recently sang for a children's hospital on Christmas. Rolfe is still here and we are getting reacquainted after not seeing each other in so long.
January 29, 1942
Today well I don't even know how to describe it. It has been such a glorious day I really don't know what to say. Should I just come out and say it? No I will tell you the story. Today my family decided to go for a hike in the mountains. I naturally wanted to go along as well. So I put on some extra clothes and started to walk out. Mother and Father were standing by the door whispering something. I walked past them.
"Where do you think you are going, young lady?" Father asked me.
"To the mountains with all of you." I answered plainly. I saw Kurt and Brigitta walk outside and Kurt started giggling at me. Brigitta hit him in the head with an apple.
"I think it is exciting Kurt so you just shut up." Mother turned to Brigitta and gave her the "be quiet look".
"Why can't I go with you?" I asked. "If you two want to be alone you shouldn't bring Kurt with you." Mother laughed.
"As a matter of fact Liesl we would love for you to come along, but someone else insisted, actually that we all leave without you." Mother answered smiling.
"What?" I said staring at them blankly.
"The Lord will show you in his own good time." Father told me with a big grin. Mother started to laugh at him. They kissed and told me good-bye, walking down the hill arm in arm. Hmm…why do I get the feeling that they are trying to hide something from me? I was about to walk back into the house when I saw Rolfe approaching our house. He was carrying a bunch of sunflowers. I have no idea how he got them. Sunflowers only grow in the summertime here. He brought them to me and asked if I wanted to take a walk. I told him I would love to considering my family went on a picnic without me. It is strange today is not cold at all. All the snow has melted. It will probably snow again in a few days, but today it is nice.
We walked around and talked about life. I really love talking to Rolfe. It is just so nice I feel so free to say what I feel when I am around him. He has really changed since his family and him were reunited. He is much more caring and easygoing now. Maybe it is because we are both older now, but he doesn't treat me like a child anymore. I am so in love with him. We sat down for a while just enjoying each other's company. After a bit Rolfe took me and turned me towards him.
"Liesl?" He asked.
"Yes?" I answered. He grew very serious. I was alarmed and worried he was going to have to leave or something.
"Liesl, I am not sure how to go about doing this, but I want to ask you something." I stare at Rolfe ready to listen to what he has to say. I can tell he is nervous. "Liesl, I love you, I want to spend my life with you. Will you marry me?" I was stunned. I couldn't be more speechlessly happy.
"I will!" I practically shouted and jumped into his arms. We kissed. I pulled away slowly not wanting the moment to end, but I became very concerned. "Rolfe, but what about Father and Mother? You have to get their permission." I told him. I knew this might not go over well with Father.
"Liesl, I already got permission. I knew you would say something like that so I went and asked your Mother and Father first."
"Well what did they say?" I asked excitedly. "They took it well?"
"Of course they took it well Liesl. It was actually a very strong yes after they made sure we were in love." He told me.
"So is that why they were all acting strange today?" I asked him.
"Yes indeed my love that is why they were all acting strangely. Now supposedly they are making a wonderful dinner for us all so we should be heading back in a little bit." He said almost reluctantly.
"Rolfe do we have to go back?" I asked. I wanted to stay with him forever, just Rolfe and me. He kissed me passionately and told me we would have plenty of time later. We stayed there for a little while longer and soon decided we should go back. As we approached the house Gretl came running out of the house.
"Liesl! Can I see the ring? Oh my goodness this is so exciting!" I laughed at Gretl as I showed her my crystal ring. Gretl is becoming quite a romance freak. She is actually almost as smart as Brigitta was when she was that old. Gretl just doesn't show it off as much as Brigitta did. Soon my whole family was surrounding us and telling us congratulations. We ate dinner and Rolfe wished me goodbye and gave me a kiss. What a day. I am getting married! I really can't even believe it.
Mother and Father were waiting for me in my room. They told me how proud they were to see their first daughter engaged. They told me they were very happy and I could go to them if I ever needed anything. This ended with hugs and happy tears.
Notes: I finally put some Liesl and Rolfe romance in here. For all you Liesl and Rolfe lovers out there I hope you enjoyed it. (even though it was only a little.) Anyways I hope you enjoyed it and please please review and tell me what you think!