My daughter just returned from a trip to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. She had Dutch pancakes, see picture, and lots of great beers. I really want to give these a try, yum. The food and sights were wonderful, but one of the highlights of her trip was meeting a young family from Holland that we had been emailing.
Megan had decided to visit the grave of my Uncle Dan. He was shot down over Germany in 1944 and is buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. Since this was to be the first visit of a family member, I thought it would be nice to have some more information about his military service. I placed a short post on the web site of the 491st Bomber Group and was amazed at the response.
Not only did we find out all the names of his crew, Dan was the 22 year old pilot, we also found out that three others who died with him were also buried in Ardennes. Also Dennis and Gerda, the young couple, began doing research for us. It turns out the people of the Netherlands still have a great respect for the young Americans who died while liberating their country. They wanted to do anything they could to help us find out more about this crew. While doing their research they developed a special bond with our relative and they decided to adopt his grave. Then they felt it would not be right, not to honor the other crewmen. So they adopted all four of these men from the 853rd Bomb Sq, 491st Bomb Gp Heavy who never returned home.
So Megan got to meet this lovely family, they traveled to Belgium to be with her that day. That is her with little Denise, today is her birthday, she is four years old. She loves to place the flowers by the white crosses when her parents visit the graves. She even wore her Mega Mindy t-shirt in my honor. Mega Mindy is a Super hero over there and since we share the name, I love her theme song. Check it out and wait for the :50 second mark.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5bj8v_mega-mindy-mega-mindy-tijd_shortfilms
This just goes to show what a small world it is and that people have not forgotten even after 65 years. In honor of cute Denise and her birthday the cookbook is #93 Dutch Cooking, The New Kitchen by Manon Siddel and Michiel Klonhammer.
Looks delicious
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