Remembering Sam
A Wartime Story of Love, Loss, and Redemption
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
A death in the family opens memories of another loss suffered years earlier, in the closing days of World War II. A letter in the mail brings a new dimension to that earlier death and unsettles an old, accepted version of events. In this tender remembrance, David Everitt recounts the story of his mother's first marriage to a man named Sam Kramer, a soldier fighting against Nazi Germany who was killed on his unit's next-to-last day of combat. Everitt begins to explore this hidden chapter in his mother's life after his father's sudden death from cardiac arrest in 1999, when memories reemerge about the first time his mother had to contend with the loss of a beloved spouse. Previously uncomfortable about examining the life of the man who preceded his father, Everitt now sees the need for completing this corner of the family portrait.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Everitt's mother, Sylvia, was grieving after the death of her second husband in 2000, when an acquaintance sent her a clipping about the WWII death of her first husband, Sam Kramer. Everitt (A Shadow of Red) had never known much about his mother's first love, but suddenly found himself curious. Fortunately, Sylvia, who was willing to reminisce, had a well-preserved cache of Sam's letters, enabling Everitt to piece together the bittersweet story of this wartime romance. After the war broke out, Sylvia, a Brooklyn College graduate, took a job in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she met Sam. Tight budgets meant a lot of dates with long walks and conversations; they came to know each other very well. When Sam was called up for military training in October 1943, they decided to marry. A year later, Sam shipped out to the European theater, and was killed in an ambush just days before the German surrender. Sylvia was shattered, but went to work with the Red Cross rehabilitating blinded veterans, where she met the man who became her second husband. In the end, Everitt has told a brief though sweet story.
