#9--Letter to my grandson about his baptismal gown made from a World War II parachute

When your mom was baptized, it was in newspapers and on news broadcasts around the world.

Dear Xavier,

Do you see the dress that your sister Gretchen is wearing?  You wore that when you were about the same age, three months old.  

Your sister was baptized in the same gown as you and your mom and me.

It's a baptismal gown that has a lot of family history and a great story about how it played a small role in World War II.  I will write later about baptism and its importance.  But, this dress, or gown as it is more accurately described for baptisms was worn by me, most of my cousins, by your mom and by you.

 

 Sometime, you should ask me to talk about my Uncle Paul who was a navigator on a bomber that flew missions over Europe during the war.  It's an amazing story about how his plane was shot at from German planes flying around them and from big guns on the ground.  

 During one of those missions, my uncle's plane was flying over Budapest, Hungary where you, your mom and dad and grandma and I visited almost two years ago.  His plane was bombing targets on the ground when it was shot at by enemy planes.  My uncle told about how the Nazi planes flew so close to him that he could see the fillings in the teeth of the pilots.

One of the engines on his plane was shot at and shut down and the plane had trouble staying in the air.  To steady, it's flight my uncle took the nylon material from his parachute and threw it out a window with one end attached to the plane.  It's flight was steadied and he and the crew made it back to Italy.

My Uncle Paul sent the parachute back to my aunt who used some of it to make the baptismal gown.  The parachute saved all the lives on his plane including his.  Just think of all the people baptized in it.  Through the water and the Word of God in baptism, they were saved by God for all eternity.

When your mom was baptized in it, newspapers from around the country and other parts of the world had a story about the occasion.  It was on the radio too during a national newscast.  Newscaster Paul Harvey talked about "Little crying Krista Thorp."

 I love you man,

 Grandpa Thorp