ANGELS OF EBERMANNSTADT

"Of all the good gifts that God gives us, perhaps none is sweeter than the gift of friendship."-Charlene Quint Kalebic When she turned forty, Charlene Kalebic realized that her life was half-lived and that the sun was setting on the lives of her parents, both in their 80's. Before time ran out, she had a strong desire to understand her father's formative years while serving in World War II as a GI. Like most men of his generation, he rarely spoke of the war; he simply referred to it as "The Big One." Her father had enlisted at the age of 17, and Charlene knew there must be something from that chapter of his life that made him the person he was today. The 60th anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1944), provided the perfect opportunity to know more about those unknown years. Hoping to discover what had formed his amazing character, she asked her father to go to Europe for the anniversary and act as her tour guide. It took only a nanosecond for him to agree. Charlene found herself on a journey of discovery into her father's past, retracing his footsteps from London through Normandy to Berlin during WWII. It was there that Charlene relived her father's faith in action-kindnesses shown, promises kept, and lifelong friendships made in the lands he was charged with liberating. To her surprise and delight, Charlene learned some of life's greatest lessons from one of the world's greatest teachers in the twilight of his life. And she came to realize that the best sermon is one without words. What had left a lasting impression on the life of her father, would forever change her own. "As the sun finally set on his life, I came to appreciate my father's greatest gift: he did not tell us how to live or even how to die, but rather, he lived and he died as it should be done-and he let us watch him do it."-Charlene Quint Kalebic