I learned something new. This unlikely occurrence transpired when I took the loving mother to visit her sister (my aunt) in the Sibley nursing home. My aunt Gladys is "the one who loves me" and once owned a hunting lodge in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. Her favorite flower is the gladiolus, and she loved to bake cookies, but hated to bake pies. She was (and still is) a woman with a big heart. For the past two years she has resided in the nursing home. Her health has been declining over the months, particularly in the past few weeks. When we arrived she was sleeping in a recliner in the living room area. We tried to wake her, but she was very weak and had difficulty keeping her eyes open. She’s 85 years old and has Parkinson’s disease. Just then I noticed one of her buddies, Floyd, at the other end of the room. He took Gladys under his wing when she first arrived at the nursing home, and we are deeply grateful to him for watching over her. I approached him and invited him to come over and visit with us. He maneuvered his wheelchair between the tables and chairs and parked next to us. He reached over and put has hand on Gladys’ arm and tried to rouse her from sleep. He said, "Hello sweetheart. You know I love you." Gladys opened her eyes, and a small, almost imperceptible smile came across her face. I sat there with my mouth open (as did my mother) staring incredulously. Could love actually emerge at this late stage of the game? In this environment? These are the elderly, 80-, 90- and 100-year-olds. They’re in final stages of the aging process. Most can’t walk, many can’t talk or dress or feed themselves. Yet there it was — "love" alive and well at the Sibley Nursing Home in Sibley, Iowa. For those of you who appreciate a good story where love prevails (don’t we all) you might like to try the new book by Danielle Steel, "Echoes." For the Wittgenstein family the summer of 1915 was a time of both prosperity and unease, as the guns of war sound in the distance. But for eldest daughter Beata it was also a summer of awakening. By the glimmering waters of Lake Geneva the quiet Jewish beauty met a young French officer and fell in love. Knowing that her parents would never accept her marriage to a Catholic, Beata followed her heart anyway. As the two built a new life together, Beata’s past would stay with her in ways she could never have predicted. As the years pass and Europe is once again engulfed in war, Beata must watch in horror as Hitler’s terror threatens her life and family, even her eighteen-year-old daughter Amadea, who has taken on the vows of a Carmelite nun.For Amadea the convent is no refuge. As family and friends are swept away without a trace, Amadea is forced into hiding. Thus begins a harrowing journey of survival as she escapes into the heart of the French Resistance. Here Amadea will find a renewed sense of purpose, taking on the most daring missions behind enemy lines. And it is here, in the darkest moments of fear, that Amadea will feel her mother’s loving strength and that of her mother’s mother before her. And here amid the fires of war Amadea will meet an extraordinary man, British secret agent Rupert Montgomery. In Col. Montgomery Amadea finds a man who will help her discover her place in an unbreakable chain between generations and a future she can only imagine, a future of hope rooted in the rich soil of the past.