He told us about a young woman named Elena who came to the gates every morning searching for her missing husband, Anton.
Walter had helped her write letters and shared his rations while he asked soldiers for news about Anton.
One day she pressed her wedding ring into Walter’s hand.
“If you ever find him,” she begged, “give this back and tell him I waited.”
But neither Elena nor Anton survived the war.
Walter kept the ring all those years out of respect for the love they shared—and because he had never forgotten the promise.
A few years before his death, after surgery, Walter asked Paul to try once more to find Elena’s family.
Paul searched.
But there was no one left.
With trembling hands, I opened Walter’s note.
