Now back to his little daughter with the hair bows…. “Why don’t my friends know who you are?” she asked him. As an effective and wise leader with a strong sense of duty and honor, he didn’t need to instruct his daughter in that moment as to what she could tell her friends about him so they would admire him as a war hero. For him to speak of his deeds would imperil innocent people living in Hoxha’s Communist Albania. He could just let this story sleep until the time was right. “What was done will be in history books” he told his daughter during the 1950’s. He was right. The story of Albania’s own “Oskar Schindler”—who saved hundreds of peoples’ lives—that was suppressed by an evil Communist dictator and then given oxygen and sunlight by the testimony of witnesses, survivors, and age-stained letters and photographs, will be added to history books. His saving hundreds of people’s lives during WWII means thousands of their descendants are alive today. And my mother, when now asked to name the person she wants to be most like, will say “my father” (with continued respect and admiration for Debbie Reynolds).
Isn’t that a wonderful story for the 29th anniversary of the toppling of the dictator Enver Hoxha’s statue by the people of Albania? :)
The author is a graduate of NYU Law School and a Truman Scholar. Most importantly, she is the proud granddaughter of Kadri Cakrani.