Reviewer John Cowans: John lives in
retirement in Chester, NS ,where he has been an Instructor with
Seniors College Association of Nova Scotia.
He is currently working on a personal memoir, Other People’s Children, and his first poetry collection, Hope.
Author: Charlene Quint Kalebic
Publisher: Deep River Books
Author: Charlene Quint Kalebic
Publisher: Deep River Books
ISBN: 9781937756475
The sepia photograph on the
cover of this tidy little book shows eight small girls dressed in
first communion white, holding hands. They are standing outside a
church in a small village in Bavaria sometime during the latter days
of WW II. They are the Angels of Ebermannstadt, so called by the
photographer, an American soldier, Richard Quint, an infantryman who
was part of the US force that liberated the village of Ebermannstadt.
This is the story of that soldier and his return to that village
fifty years later with his daughter, Charlene Quint Kalebic,who
joined many allied veterans in 2004 traveling to France and Germany
for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day.
Charlene Quint Kalebic is a
practicing attorney residing in Lake Forest, IL. She holds a B.A
accounting and business administration, from Augustana College and a
J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago. She serves on the Board of
Regents and as an adjunct professor at Trinity International
University in Deerfield, Illinois.
This book is not just the story
of a soldier’s return to the places where he fought a war years
before; it is the story of a reunion and an ensuing friendship; the
key by which we gain entrance to the tale is the picture of the
little ‘angels’. In the early 90’s Richard Quint sent his
picture to the Burgermeister of Ebermannstadt who published it and
identified the ‘angels’ then in their 60’s; in 1995, Richard
and his wife returned to the village to be reunited with these
ladies. So began a friendship which was continued in 2004 with
Richard’s return to Europe for the D-day celebrations.
There
have been many quest books written through history, many in recent
years, of soldiers returning to places where they did battle. The
reasons for these returns are as varied as the soldiers themselves
and every one is deeply personal; often these visits were simply to
prove to oneself that indeed the places still existed; more often
they were returns to visit the graves of comrades. Richard Quint’s
reasons are these, of course, but there is more to this moving story;
there is a spiritual quality to it which is the obvious undying love
and devotion of a daughter for her father. It is this last element
that makes The Angels of Ebermannstadt
so worthwhile. Charlene Kalebic’s book is nicely presented with
many interesting photographs, a proud tribute not just to her
father but to all ordinary fighting men who by their commitment to
freedom were extraordinary.