"Some Enchanted Evening": Miracles Surround War-torn Love Story

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Love is in the air these days. Many have offered thoughts about this powerful emotion. This week, several of our readers share their thoughts in a series of guest essays.]

by Francine Black

Who doesn’t love a love song?

One of my absolute favorites is that wondrous moment in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 musical "South Pacific."  The show is set during war time, and a glorious bass baritone sings of falling in love with a woman the moment their eyes met “across a crowded room.”

Is this the stuff of fiction and impossible dreams, or can it really happen?  It can happen and it did in fact happen quite miraculously to my parents!

In May of 1940, Hitler invaded France. Life, as my family in Lorraine knew it, was catapulted from peace and normalcy into a chaos of death and destruction. 

Sixteen year old Lise, her siblings and her parents lived in daily fear of bombings and the sounds of hobnailed boots patrolling the streets. All the Jews had been loaded into trucks. Among them was a handsome curly haired boy named Raymond who would sometimes walk home from school near Lise. Raymond disappeared forever. 

Mere and Pere Rouh (Lise’s parents) were people of devout faith whose very souls revolted against the Nazi agenda and hatred. They were not powerful in any physical way but were determined to do their part to stand against their vile invaders. Huddled together with their children in the dark and in hushed tones, they planned to make their poor home an overnight sanctuary for anyone trying to escape the death clutches of the Nazis. There were Jews, Poles, Serbs, dissident pastors, Americans - so many - needing a meager meal and delousing as they fought their way to freedom in Belgium. The word had gone out to the underground.

On this particular cold February night in 1942, a man named Pavle, thin and dirty, scratched at the basement door. Pere Rouh opened and taking him by the hand, led him to a dimly lit corner of the cellar where a soft mound of rags made a bed for that exhausted soul. 

Mere Rouh and the children began to boil large kettles of water. One would boil the man’s ragged clothes and the other would bathe him in the attempt to remove the awful vermin crawling on his skin. Pere Rouh and the boys attended to him and when he was cleansed and dressed in clean borrowed clothes, Mere Rouh offered him a dished of boiled potatoes. 

The girls sat at a distance and watched him as he reverently stared at the food with tears of gratitude. Before the starving man ate a morsel, he knelt before Mere and Pere and kissed their hands. No words were exchanged as neither spoke each other’s language, but what amazing love was exchanged in that gesture!

The humble meal eaten, Pavle sat with his back against the stone wall and drank in the beauty of this family knowing it was unlikely that he’d ever see his again. Then a moment of unforgettable clarity struck him when his eyes met those of a beautiful young woman sitting across the cellar. It was 18-year-old Lise who stared at him with eyes of pity, but his were the eyes of hardened 31 year old man who saw his future lover.  And it was the memory of that moment that kept him alive through the next three horrible years of war and prison camps.

Just weeks later, Lise was captured by the Nazis along with her brother Rene one night when they were out searching for a downed American airman. She spent her 18th birthday on February 24 being beaten, interrogated, and finally imprisoned and put to work in a German munitions factory.

Both Lise and Pavle survived to see the end of WWII. Lise was released and was sitting on a bench outside a train station in Germany waiting to get transport back to France.  She’d been sitting there for 3 days, and although it was May it was still cold at night.  She was thin and starving. 

Pavle had been liberated by the American Army and stayed with them to assist in the aftermath as he spoke several languages and could translate. Lise was never far from his mind as the look in her beautiful eyes remained his lodestone for survival. He asked for a truck from the American army and began the search for her. Knowing only her name, he somehow found her sitting on that bench in Germany, hardly recognizing her emaciated body but knowing her for her eyes. 

Her clothes were thread bare, and she was shivering. He took off his own socks, put them on her feet and wrapped her in his coat. He picked her up in his arms and carrying her like a little child, he tucked her into the front seat of his truck and drove her back to France to find what was left of her family. 

Lise and Pavle married and made a beautiful home and family. Their love lasted even after Pavle passed away. I was with Lise, my mother, moments before she died and she told me her Pavle was waiting for her with open arms and that all she wanted now was to be with her beloved for eternity.

In addition to writing a regular food column, "Philosophizing About Food With Francine," for The Expression, Francine Black is a retired Boyertown Area School District music teacher. She gives private lessons to students from her studio on Opera Mountain high above Bally. 

More News from Boyertown

• Chris Karver's Love Story Showcases True Love on "B Inspired" Podcast The real lovers aren't the handsome princes in fairy tales; Chris Karver explains in a "B Inspired" podcast episode.
• Building a Better Boyertown's Second Pictorial History Book Available The History of the Boyertown Area in Pictures: Special People Create a Special Place, the second pictorial history book of Boyertown, is available for purchase.