This story is based on my experiences as a youth, with the main focus on my wonderful, but tragic first love. Lasting only a short sixteen months, it subsequently shaped my entire life and the resultant departure from Germany to Australia. I was born in 1941 in Wurzburg and grew up in the American occupied zone of West Germany. The background is set in post-war Germany and addresses the Allied Occupational Forces and its affect on the German population. It was a time when people tried desperately to come to terms with their shattered lives. Most of the events, including places and persons (I have changed the names of the people and some place names since some of the people are still alive) are based on real events. This momentous occurrence at that time affected my whole life. I wrote this book from my perspective of that time."