Family History Series ~ A Honeymoon to Forget

Jonas and Salomėja did marry. He was 28; and she was a mere 17.

For many years, the only story that I heard of my parents' marriage and supposed honeymoon was that Jonas borrowed the priest's car (an Opel) for him and his new bride to tour the Moselle Wine Route ~ a twisting route that take the traveller through the idyllic wine villages of Germany.

The story goes that during a tour of one of the wineries, the new couple was so over-come by the intoxicating fumes that Jonas wound up driving the car off the road.

It was a serious accident that left Jonas with injuries severe enough to have him hospitalized for an extended period of time. Salomėja did not require the extensive hospitalization that her husband did.

The story further continues with Jonas "unofficially" discharging himself from the hospital upon hearing that the doctors were planning on confining him to a sanatorium due to his extensive brain damage.

For nearly most of my life, this was the "official" story of my parents' honeymoon.

So, imagine the shock when an aunt ~ my mother's sister ~ filled in the gaps a few years ago.

Yes, Jonas and Salomėja did go off the road. Not only that, they went off the mountain.

No one knows how long they were unconscious or how long it was until they were rescued.

It was believed that the first group to come upon Jonas and Salomėja was a group of natives who looted the car and left the young couple for dead.

Jonas and Salomėja were eventually rescued by a group of soldiers.

As this was sinking into my brain, my aunt continued her story.

She said that she and her mother went to visit Jonas in the hospital. They were in a ward full of male patients, all in pyjamas and bathrobes. The two women looked around for Jonas but could not find him.

As Irena and her mother, Ieva, were about to walk through the door and leave the ward, they heard a familiar voice call to them. It was Jonas.

When they approached area where they heard Jonas's voice, they saw a man whose head was covered in bandages and swollen to nearly twice its size. If it were not for the voice, Irena and Ieva would have not recognized the eyes behind the heavy swathe as belonging to Jonas.

There was more to the story.

Apparently the accident affected Salomėja in more ways than just leave a small scar at her hairline.

Irena said that before the accident Salomėja was rather mellow and soft-spoken. That was news to me, because I have often know my mother to have her screaming banshee moments.

As soon as I got off the phone, I had to call Roma and tell her of this shocking revelation about our parents.

She was stunned as I was.

All these years we thought we were being raised by just one brain-damaged parent only to find out that both parents had brain damage.

All these years we were playing the hand without seeing all the cards that were dealt.

I think we played it well.