Atheists in Foxholes

The first atheist I ever personally met was my husband's grandmother. Her daughter was not an atheist. Her grandsons were not and neither was her son-in-law. I remember my future husband mentioning in passing that his grandmother was a nonbeliever. He mentioned it in passing, flushing out his description of a person whom he loved and admired.

She was a tough lady. In 1939 she faced down the Nazis who attempted to block her emigration to America with her 15 year old daughter. She was a woman of enormous charm who had no illusions whatsoever about her fellow humans. She loved her daughter possessively and her grandsons devotedly. She was a dynamite bridge player, skilled at needlecraft and lived to work rather than working to live. She dined on steak and salad and drank Napoleon brandy straight-up.

I remember well how she detested growing old and crippled with arthritis. When her younger sister died in her mid-seventies, she declared her sister "had all the luck." Unable to give up or give in, she hated being OLD.

She did not bring up the subject of her unbelief or atheism unless you asked her. If you did, her answer was simple and straight-forward - I do not believe in God - period - end of discussion. No hint or suggestion you should emulate her. No attempts to proselytize her disbelief. Just a simple statement of fact - she did not believe in God.

I have never been in a foxhole and have no idea if atheists have existed there or not. But I did know one interesting, witty, non-conforming woman who  remained an atheist through the holocaust, her years of struggle and success in post World War II United States and a brave and painful old age that ended just shy of her 100th birthday.

She was one of the two most interesting people I have known in my life (the other is my own mother). Somehow I do not feel the need to say RIP (she died in 1991). She lived and died an atheist - no fanfare about it - just a simple statement of unbelief.