Los Angeles

We were met by a crew of news paper reporters and photographers. The headline about me was that I was the first army wife who had seen her husband in Europe. I have a copy of the story but I have no idea of what happened to it when I moved. I will search. It seems as though we were in Los Angeles a short while. Probably because their unloading and loading was more modern in it's efficiency.

Before long we sailed below the Golden Gate Bridge and that was enough to bring a tear to many eyes. My father in law met me again and he was invited to have lunch with us at the Captain's table. The two men hit it off. I think they were about the same age. Captain Renke looked like Jimmy Durante, and like him he was constantly fiddling with his nose. I had to wait for a freight company, for I had quite a lot of luggage. I had a coffee table with painted troll tiles, and I had the Soup tureen that S. had told me he did not like and many other items I had painted. And there was the big pillow like thing on which you made pillow lace. And there were several things I had bought on farm auctions, such as Hoganas crocks and Dala horses and a fabulous Painting by a famous painter we saw in Dalarna. It is hanging in front of me at this moment and when I look at it my spirits soar. It is a landscape depicting the church in Viken. It was first built in the eleven hundreds and later destroyed by a thunderstorm. When it was rebuilt my grandfather was the strongest boy in the village and he put the cross on the spire. The last couple of sentences could be wrong, but that is the story I have always heard.

The freight man arrived and I rode with him in his truck to S.s family house on the Peninsula.

S.s mother met us when we arrived in Hillsborough, and she was welcoming and I was so glad to see her. I asked what she knew about S.s whereabouts and she did not know any more than I did. He should be on his way home for he had enough points. She watched me open crates with the painted items and when we came to the soup tureen I gave it to her and she immediately put it on the dining room table and it made it look very important. She was very happy about it and I as so glad I had something to show how grateful I was for having lived there so long.