sitting under the apple tree

Yesterday Pop put his recliner out under the apple trees and I reclined in it all afternoon. Soft breezes, muted sounds drifting across while I finished up a novel, A THREAD OF GRACE about Italy, WWII and how the Italians saved the lives of over 40,000 Jews at great cost to themselves. It was a really good book. There was nothing sugar coated though I warn you. It was war and terrible things were done. But a quote in the final chapter sums it all up,"No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace." The Rabbi who quoted the above says that..." after the Yom Kippur roundup in '43 people all over Italy helped us. Almost fifty thousand Jews were hidden. Italians, foreigners. And so many of them survived the occupation. I keep asking myself, Why was it different here? Why did Italians help when so many others turned away?" I feel a desire to know more of modern Italian history.