I recently discovered a box of old family photos I hadn’t been able to locate since we moved three years ago.
This is one of the images that was in it. The photo shows my father with his parents and brother. My best guess is that this was taken in 1945, shortly after my grandfather returned from the war.
My grandfather was drafted to fight in World War II in 1943, despite being 37 years old and the sole support of a wife and two small boys. He fought in key battles in France and Belgium, including in the Normandy Invasion and the Battle of the Bulge, in which he was injured in a bayonet fight with a German soldier, resulting in a cut to his hand and a Purple Heart medal.
The Petrini Page 