Thoughts About A Baby Identification Bracelet by Cheryl Freier, Author of The Grayling Hidden Truth Poems and The Wild Grasses Hidden Truth Poems

The newest year having arrived, it is time to distance myself from past happenings.  Nostalgic thoughts, however, get into the way many times.  Cannot help thinking a little about the past, but trying to view the past in a positive, forward going way.

It was during one of these moments of high-point reflexive thoughts that I found in one of the forward corners, a unique type of bracelet.  It was really special because it had been the foot bracelet that a nurse had placed on my foot after I was just born. It was the way of identifying a newborn:  A series of small pink beads were followed by a series of white beads, which contained the capital letters and spelled my last name.  I thought to myself, “Wow, my foot must have been so tiny, but it was like most infants.  I asked myself the question, “Why, what was the reason I found the foot bracelet on this day—many decades of years afterwards.  “Could it be that I should remember something from the past,” I asked myself this serious question.

I was born to a loving mother and father.  I was born after WWII.  My mother like so many other women of her generation who were of Judaic descent was affected by the war.  I can remember as a young girl seeing her sitting, mute on the edge of the bed.  Thinking no one was watching her, she spoke to herself as tears rolled down her cheeks.  She said, “I hope they do not rearm and come to collect the Jews here”.

That moment of time crystallized in my mind.  It was only later that I realized that my mother was gripped with fear.  An ocean and time had separated my mother from the Nazi Holocaust, but the impact of the fear of being identified as a Jew remained with my mother for a very long time.  I think that I was inspired to write about war time happenings at that moment.  Cheryl Freier is the author of The Grayling Hidden Truth Poems, The Wild Grasses Hidden Truth Poems, Blossoms Around The Circles Hidden Truth Poems, and The Day Of The Hidden Truth Poems—stories related to the Holocaust history.  Visit Cheryl’s website at:  www.thegraylinghiddentruthpoems.com.