Frohe Weihnachten

V. Epilogue

Naomi would end up surviving the war, but she'd forever be mentally scarred. The smell of mustard would terrify her, she'd forever feel fatigued and more irritable. She'd end up burying more soldiers than she'd save during her time in the trenches. Making her feel more guilty than what she thought was humanly possible. What happened to her in the trenches would forever be a source of nightmares for her and many other soldiers that were to come.

She would sign-up to become a nurse during WWII. Answering the call once again. But this time, not as enthusiastically. For she was older, she knew what war entailed now. She wasn't as naïve as she was back then. Since Naomi knew Yiddish, she'd work in medical camps set-up by the Allied Forces that would help Holocaust survivors. The things they experienced were a hell of a lot worse than what Naomi would ever have to go through. Naomi would never be able to get the people who looked like emaciated corpses out of their mind. Their stories were something she'd never forget. It would forever haunt her dreams, making her wonder how anyone could be that cruel. She'd take George, who would live out the rest of his days, enjoying trips on catnip, drinking milk, mousing, lounging by the fire on cold nights, and just being an overall cute cat. He would die at the age of 20 in his sleep after a long battle with cancer. The Unit was heartbroken when George died. They all came together for the funeral Naomi's daughter Sarah insisted on holding.

On Christmas 1918 she'd go to Berlin and meet Daniel. The two would start-up a relationship, eventually getting married in 1922. They'd live in Inverness upon Daniel's insistence to escape post-WWI Germany. Daniel would end up becoming a British citizen in 1929. He'd go on to serve in WWII fighting against the Germans and liberating Bergen-Belsen. The same side he'd fought for during the Great War. They'd go on to have ten children, all of whom would make it to adulthood. They'd have 30 grandchildren and over 100 great-grandchildren. Some would make their way to the United States, Canada, Australia, and the newly-founded State of Israel. Though most would stay in the United Kingdom, moving from Inverness to London.

The Spectors would go on to build-up Miami, FL. The American branch would end up making a fortune. Two of the American Spector Brothers would have a falling out, leaving the granddaughter of the fallen-out brother to grow up in New York. The granddaughter would later become a teacher, living out the rest of her days in Inverness, just like her great-great-grandmother before her. Growing close with her distant relatives that still lived in Inverness over a hundred years later. That relative would never get married or have children, but she died at the age of hundred surrounded by family. And of course, cats.

Her brother Jakob would make it home, to terrified to speak of what happened to him during the war. But he'd experienced the same thing on Christmas Day 1914 as his older sister. He'd break bread with the Germans, he'd play a few rounds of football, he'd help bury the dead. The dead who were often the same age, or younger, than Jakob was. He'd forever live with survivor's guilt. He made it, but many others wouldn't. Jakob would move up in rank, eventually earning the rank of a general. He too would go to war during WWII and was one of the last ones to be evacuated in Dunkirk. He'd go on to liberate Bergen-Belsen side-by-side with his brother-in-law as well. Jakob would retire at the rank of 'colonel' after WWII. Seeing too many battles, he too would end up writing home about the men he'd lost in combat. And he too would be filled with guilt about what he was doing. A whole other generation was wiped out after the war. Jakob would go on to mary a wonderful French woman he'd met and the two would settling down in Inverness where he'd taken on the mantel of a tailor and inheriting his family's business. Jakob and his wife, Sarah, would have five children and would forever stay close to Naomi. Both families having dinner together once a week.

All three of them would lose family members to the Nazis. That included Naomi and Jakob's Aunt and Uncle, both of whom were killed brutally by Nazis in Krakow as an entertainment. The crowd laughing as two elderly people, who were jewellers and never did anything wrong, bled out slowly on the stone streets. Naomi and Jakob's cousins whom the Rosenthal siblings hadn't seen in years, would die by firing squad, gas chambers, or by Nazi experiments, becoming several of millions to lose their lives to Hitler's regime. Daniel would lose his older brother, Ben who died in the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Ben would slowly suffocate to death, knowing that he'd never see the people he loved again. Scratching and screaming, but no one would let them out. Ben Spector was 45 when he died had been a decorated veteran of the Great War. His medals and accomplishments would be stripped away from the Spector brothers when the Nazis came to power. Just like many other German Jews.

As Naomi and Daniel grew older, Dan would die of complications of Parkinson's Disease, surrounded by his family. Naomi would die of old age, surrounded by family as well, going peacefully in her sleep. Jakob wasn't too far behind her. All the smoking Jakob did would catch up to him, he'd die of Lung Cancer at the ripe old age of 95. The last few months of his life would be the most painful of his existence, being hooked up to a ventilator to breathe. Jakob's last words: I WANNA FUCKING DIE ALREADY! TAKE ME ALREADY! The Grim Reaper answered Jakob Rosenthal's request not too long after.

Many of the soldiers she'd spent time with on that fateful day in 1914 wouldn't live to see another Christmas. They'd fall by gunshot or mustard gas or sepsis. A whole generation would be wiped out because of the war, causing even more chaos than what had been intended. But the Great War's Treaty of Versailles would sew the seeds for WWII. Nothing like what happened Christmas Day 1914 would ever happen again. It was a symptom of a young war. Something that represented hope and wonder.

Naomi, Jakob, and Daniel would all be diagnosed with something called Shell Shock a few years after they returned from the war, a name that would later morph into what people nowadays would understand as PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They were only three of millions that would be diagnosed in the years to come.

The memory of that day would live on in the world's memory. WWI Survivors would go together every now and then to chat and talk about their lives. That shared experience up and down the lines would forever hold a special place in their hearts. Especially for Daniel and Naomi Spector. For it was where the two of them met and fell in love. Something no one would ever think was possible considering that the two were on opposite sides.