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15 ___________________ Reunion in Hamme May 1984-Belgium. "Did you know I canied a gun and was prepared to shoot you after we left Dr. Proost's house?" "No." I was startled. "I thought you might be a German spy." Henri Malfait laughed, enjoying my astonished look. This was a shocker to me. I thought that when he had radioed the answers on the questionnaire back to London, my identity had been confirmed, else why would he have taken me to his parents' home? Now Malfait told me he had not received a reply from London that evening and had to get me out of Dr. Proost's house in a hurry. Word finally did come the following da~ But what if London had not been able to verify my identity? When I remember how files and communications sometimes get fouled up in the army, I shudder. I could have been shot! This was not the only surprise awaiting us when Margie and I returned to Belgium for a four-day visit more than forty years after the event. Margie was as excited as I was at meeting the people she had come to know through my stories. What started as a long overdue expression of gratitude to people who had risked their lives for me and for so many others became an exciting voyage of discovery. Before returning to Belgium, Margie and I had taken a sevenday barge trip on the canals of Holland, where we enjoyed the breathtaking beauty ofthe tulips at their peak. When we checked back into ourhotel in Amsterdam, a letter was waiting. It began: 118 ESCAPE FROM HITLER'S EUROPE Dear George, First ofall I'd like to present myselfbecause you have to know who is writing to you. My name is Monique Inghels. I'm Raymond's daughter. I was 3~ years old the 5th November 1943, the day you came down with your parachute in the fields of Durmen, the village where I lived with my parents. Since that day I know you by name, because daddy told us often enough "the story of George Watt" and each time my brother and I were hanging on his lips. I had wanted so much to see Raymond Inghels again, that irrepressible ship's cook who took me by tram and train to his in-laws, Dr. Jean Proost and his wife, Hedwige, in Brussels. Now I was too late. He had died fourteen years earlier of lung cancer. But Monique would take us to see the Proosts, her aunt and uncle. I immediately called Monique in Hamme. The only time we could see her aunt and uncle was that very evening; they were leaving for Spain the next morning. There went Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and all the Dutch painters we had come to see. We made a hurried visit to the Rijksmuseum and caught the 5:26 to Antwerp. Monique, a tall, attractive, blonde woman, met us at the station with her husband, Theo, a robust man sporting a Van Dyke. A moment later I was surprised to see an older couple rushing toward us. By placing an imaginary cap on the man's head, I was able to recognize Eduard Lauwaert, the man with the cap, and his wife, Mathilde. We embraced and reminisced joyfully. Then Theo and Monique drove us to Brussels. "George, you are very famous in Zele and Hamme. Everybody knows the story of George Watt," Monique said. "And everybody knows about Henri Malfait, the man who helped you, but I think he is dead. My father used to take us on picnics in the field where he was with you Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would ever meet you Now, it's a dream come true. 0] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 08:07 GMT) Reunion in Hamme ll9 How sad that my father did not live to see you After the war he sailed to New York many times and looked for you at your Long Island address but could not find you" "Whata shame. We moved to Manhattan soon afterthe war," I said. When we arrived at her aunt and uncle's house, Hedwige greeted us. ''This is where you stood forty years ago," she said as she closed the door behind us. I remembered that first frightened look and thought of the heroism of a young doctor's wife who risked everything to protect an American airman who was a complete...

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