From @stayzeroactual I always had an admiration for the older generation. Always took the time to listen, to learn and to appreciate the lessons from them, because the value is more than anything else in life.
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When I was 13 years old, I was working in a small Italian restaurant as a bus boy after school (weird right?) and every evening, this man right here came in like clockwork. Always sitting at the same table, drinking the same red wine, eating the same food, all by his lonesome. After a while, I came to know the man as 1st Lt.Ross, a WWII B17 Bomber pilot. He was on his way back from his 15th bombing run over Europe in 1944 and literally hours after landing, he was ordered to fly another mission as a replacement with a different plane and new crew; due to the fact that the previous pilot was killed. So with little rest, food, and no hesitation he climbed in cockpit and took off. As they were flying in their standard box formation and approaching their target, all he recalled was an explosion in the cockpit, a flash of light and his body being sucked out of the cockpit. He later learned that the explosion was caused by another B17 bomber which veered off course and dropped its payload on top of his plane.
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He managed to pull onto his chute, and while dangling in the air, he watched his plane go down in flames, with the hopes that some of the crew would bail out, but none did. Upon landing in a olive field somewhere in France, he was quickly captured by a German patrol and for the next year and change of captivity, he would beaten on a daily basis for the simple fact that he was part Jew. He conveyed his hatred towards the Germans pretty clearly while telling this story and this was the only instance were he talked about the war. I then understood why he was very quite, always to himself but yet, took the time to share something so deep to someone he barely knew and who had barely experienced life.
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After a short while, he stopped coming and I never saw him again. We took one photo together and that was it. Almost 20 years later, I often think of him with the hopes that he would find peace. #neverforget