HEBRON — Walter Bannon of Bridgton recently briefed the Hebron Historical Society on his mother’s accounts of her four-year struggle after the Nazi invasion of her hometown of Bouillon, Belgium.
She kept virtually all of her wartime experiences to herself until the later years of her life. Upon her family’s urging to make decisions regarding discarding some of the numerous boxes of her lifelong possessions to make more space, she agreed to evaluate them.
One of those boxes contained an old white pocket book, which she’d had since she was 10. She would take notes of her dreams for the future and put them in it. She kept family photos and even rosary beads there as well. It had been her secret hope chest.
Seeing this again served as an emotional trigger allowing her to share numerous, and sometimes horrific, details and stories of her wartime recollections that had been locked up for so long.
Her son, Bannon, and other siblings carefully took notes of her stories and eventually he compiled them into a book titled “The White Pocketbook.”
Bannon had copies for signing and indicated there was some producer interest in eventually making this story into a movie.
The next society meeting will feature Scott Andrews of the Maine Ski Museum along with Hebron Academy historian David Stonebraker speaking on the history of snow sports in the local area. The meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, at the Town Office, 351 Paris Road. The public is invited.
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