We have among us a Lexican who posts some very rare photos on our Facebook page. And a couple of days ago, he posted this.
I’ve been transfixed by the emotions that this photo captured. It is 1956, and a German father, after being in a Soviet Gulag for 10 or 11 years, is finally reunited with his daughter. She last saw him when she was a year old. The fact that he even returned is a miracle in itself. So many died in the Gulags from overwork, disease, and starvation.
The picture shows so much – the man behind the girl is probably the person who facilitated the reunion. The girl is so overcome with joy she is speechless and probably tearful. The father is also joyful and probably memories of his daughter back home kept him alive. For the girl, probably living in an orphanage all those years (where is the mother?) wondering and dreaming that her father was still alive during all those years, gave her some hope.
For the man who brought this girl to her father, his joy is full and complete seeing this after spending so long bringing them together.
For that matter, this picture below conveys the same emotions. The father is finally home after a long deployment and meeting his family after so long an absence. There wasn’t a day that went by during that long absence that both he and his family thought of each other.
And that day they were finally reunited.
No words were necessary.
H/T to that Lexican.
