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My grandfather in Berlin, 1933

I unfortunately didn't have the chance to get to know my grandfather well before he died over thirty years ago, but I have since come to know him very personally through thousands of his journal pages and photographs. In reading about his experiences, I have been continually fascinated by the connections to people and events in my own life. I ended up spending a year or two of my commuting time on the train documenting those connections in the form of a book for my extended family. Everything seemed to keep coming around full circle, so that's what I called it. It got much longer than I had intended and has never been edited or abridged, so I offer my advance apologies to any prospective readers. Here's a brief description of the contents of the book for anyone interested in diving into any part of it:

Part I. Older than the Titanic

How my son's question, "Is Great-Grandpa older than the Titanic?" led me to spend my precious free time buried in the past.

Part II. Countdown to Commencement

Covering the unique cast of characters participating in LDS High School's graduation night events on June 1, 1928, including a historic commencement ceremony in the Salt Lake Tabernacle and a lively dance party in the Rooftop Garden.

Tracing the paths of my grandfather and some of his prominent classmates around the world through the 20th century as they head off to college, serve overseas missions, start families, serve their country during World War II, and embark on careers and life journeys that take them in wildly different directions.

Part IV: A Circle Inscribed

How I came to know some of the same souls my grandfather had known 60 years earlier in the mystical and now defunct land of Silesia - people who had endured the rise of Nazism, a world war, and forty years of Orwellian rule in the interim.

Part V: Coda

In which my son's open heart surgeries open my own heart to the things in life which matter most, with so many connections to the past brought around full circle.

My grandmother in her mother's arms, 1917