Page 97 of Long Way Home

September was a beautiful month to be living in the countryside in upstate New York. The leaves on the trees changed to an artist’s palette of glorious colors—red, orange, yellow, rust, amber. I wrote a letter to Sam as soon as Jim and I returned from New York City and sent it to him by airmail through the relief agency on Cyprus. A month later I received Sam’s reply:

Dear Gisela,

The war is over and we are both alive, and no one can ever tear us apart again! Now I know there is a God of mercy and grace and love because I have been praying that you are still alive, praying we would find each other again—and He has answered my prayers. What joy I felt when I received your letter! I’m surprised you didn’t hear my shout of happiness all the way across the ocean in New York! We will have to be patient and wait a little longer, but now that I’m able to contact my parents in America, they can sponsor my immigration. The paperwork may take several months, but then I will be allowed to leave this detention camp for good and come to be with you.

But listen, my love. I am convinced more than ever that our real home, our children’s home, will be in the land of our ancestors. God is breathing new life into the precious souls of those who died in the camps in order to bring about the rebirth of our Promised Land. None of our fellow Jews will ever have to wander the world without a home, being rejected by the nations the way we were on the St.Louis. The prophet Zechariah gave us this glimpse of what God is doing:

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: You can be sure that I will rescue my people from the east and from the west. I will bring them home again to live safely in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be faithful and just toward them as their God.”

Those words are our hope. I believe they will come true in our lifetime and that you and I will be part of it. For now, we must place our trust in God, who has kept us this far and who will bring us together once again.

We’re another day closer!

All my love, all my life,

Sam