It was supposed to be her 13th birthday cake. Instead, thanks to the Second World War and a penitent US Army, it became her 90th.
Meri Mion was about to turn 13 when American troops pushed the Nazis out of her hometown near Vicenza, Italy, on 28 April, 1945. When the fighting was over, her mother baked her a birthday cake and put it on the windowsill to cool. A few minutes later, it mysteriously disappeared.
According to a US military press release, that’s because some hungry American soldiers ate it.
On Thursday, the day before Ms Mion turned 90, the US Army Garrison Italy made it up to her. At a sunlit ceremony attended by hundreds of residents, soldiers, and veterans, Sgt Peter Wallis and Col Matthew Gomlak gave Ms Mion a new cake.
On the top, a message written in chocolate icing read “Buon 90 Compleanno!” – meaning “Happy 90th Birthday!”
Ms Mion accepted the replacement with gratitude.
“Tomorrow, I will eat that dessert with all my family, remembering this wonderful day that I will never forget,” she told the crowd.
Exactly 77 years ago, Ms Mion said, she and her mother spent the night hiding in the attic of their barn as thunder cracked and Germans fired shots as they retreated. Ms Mion said the memory still haunts her.
The next morning, triumphant American troops paraded through Corso Palladio, the main road of Vicenza, as Italians showered them with bread and wine. It was a joyous day, except that Ms Mion’s cake was stolen.
Even at age 13, however, she didn’t begrudge the soldiers for taking it.
“I was surprised,” she recalled to Il Giornale di Vicenza. “But then I realized the American soldiers had taken it and it made me happy. It was a good end, given everything they had done.”
