A sweet tale of 'The Honey Man'

"The Honey Man: is a heartwarming story by a World War II veteran. The vet's name was Jake, he went to the swap meet each week, selling honey from "his bees." He met a fellow swap meet dealer and became friends. Jake had a limp. He later told this story to the author of this story.

His unit went to Europe toward the end of World War II. Jake says he was in a small unit behind enemy lines and they were ambushed. All members of the unit except for him were killed. They were in a farmer's field, he had been left for dead. Then the German farmer came and rescued him and buried his dead soldiers.

At the farmer's house, he was slow to recover. The farmer had a beautiful niece and they became close during his recovery. Then they were married. And the war ended. He was finally strong enough to make it back to his unit.

The Army wouldn't let him take his bride back to the U.S. Then the Iron Curtain came and she was on the other side. After the wall was taken down, he went back numerous times to try to find her but to no avail. He never gave up trying to find her, but had no luck.

The next week, Jake didn't show up at the swap meet. The author went to his house to see if he was OK.

Jake was there, he told Robin, the author of this story, "Robin, I would like you to meet my twin daughters, Ute and Ingrid!"

They had found him! Their mother had recently died, but the twins told her that their mother had never given up hope of finding him. The daughters then moved in with him on his farm.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.