Fredi was younger than all our fathers, and he’d been on the right side of the war, which I think made it easier to keep an open mind about things as he got older, because he wasn’t consumed by regret or shame like many of our fathers were. When you’ve fought for something you believe in and you’ve triumphed—when you’ve helped to literally save the world—I imagine it’s easier to see the joy and possibility in new and beautiful things.
