My dad died in February 1989. He began having me type his memoirs in 1988. His health was so bad that he had difficulty speaking, and I lived in northern CA and had three little children, so it was difficult for dad and I to accomplish much. After spending his life trying to forget things about the war and other bad experiences, shortly before his death he was driven to share as much as possible. Typical of my generation of Maurers (I think Marlene and Sharon share this with me) I wanted to know as much as possible. It was very frustrating not to be able to accomplish more before my dad's death. His cousins, Lev Ralph) and Abe Maurer were also aggressively pursuing a family history at the time. My dad had a massive heart attack in late 1978. He was disabled as a result, and had to give up teaching elementary school, but he would go back to visit his students whenever he was strong enough, and even did some tutoring. He was pretty weak for most of the rest of his life, but a few years before his death began taking college courses (maybe adult ed) focused on autobiography writing. That is when he first began organizing some of the materials that you now have copies of.