PIERCETON - At first Athalia Gross thought the call from Denmark was in response to a genealogy inquiry. She soon discovered, though, the overseas connection was from the son of a one-time pen pal, a girl she corresponded with just prior to the German invasion of Denmark April 9, 1940. "You can imagine my surprise when I finally figured out who the call was from," Gross said recently.Over the years she thought Birgit E.Olsen, now Birgit Lauridsen, had died. Not only did the woman survive five years of German occupation, she'd married, had children and never forgot her American pen pal, the then-13-year-old Athalia Dill of Pierceton. Gross doesn't remember how she came by the Danish girl's name and address.
TERESA SMITH, Times-Union Staff Writer- | July 28, 2016
