My father was 9 and my mother was barely walking when they first met. Obviously, sparks didn't quite fly at that moment. They both grew up in a same small village in Croatia, but once my father reached 5th grade, he was sent away to an all boys dormitory. Just around the time my father was born, his father had been killed in World War II, so this facility or home he was sent to was meant for children with only one parent or both parents killed.
In the meantime, my mother was going to school and had seen my father once again when she was 12. By the time my mother was 16, she had moved to Germany to earn some money and had become engaged to a German by the time she was 17.
Once my father was out of the army, he had asked about my mother and when he heard she was in Germany, he quickly wrote her a letter asking her to come back to Croatia to see him. Now my mother was very precautious of his request and so insisted that he come to Germany. Through his ingenious trickery, he convinced my mom to come back. Not because of my father's plea, but because of the telegram sent to my mother by her sister saying that their father was sick. This little scheme was concocted by my father who was also engaged at that time! When my mother arrived in Croatia, she quickly figured out what was going on. About one month after she arrived, they were married.
I'm sure many of you dual cultural offspring have a similar story to tell about how your parents met or married. I know with many Croatians back then, most couples did not date for very long and hardly knew each other before marrying. Most of the time the families came from the same villages and knew each other and that's what was relied on, the sense of trust within this collective culture.
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