The Last Green Valley

When Adeline and the boys arrive in Oebisfelde, they search for a small diagonal alley that Greta told Adeline about. According to Greta, it will lead them to a lane that crosses the border between East and West Germany. As they leave the train station, their small wagon breaks; Adeline creates a makeshift handle to pull the wagon.

As they reach the end of the alley, a man driving a horse and cart warns Adeline that Soviet soldiers are approaching. They hide in a shed while the soldiers lead several prisoners to Oebisfelde. Once the coast is clear, they walk by the Soviet guardhouse at the border. Adeline notices three men in the window of the guardhouse, who also take notice of her. After passing the guardhouse, Adeline hears shots ring out. She notices one of the men chasing after them. Adeline and the boys run as fast as they can down the trail until the man is out of sight.

Adeline, Walt, and Will stop to rest, but the man approaches them. He explains that the guards were doing target practice and had sent him to help Adeline as they assumed she had been cleared to pass the border. The man helps Adeline carry their broken wagon to Danndorf in West Germany.

In Danndorf, Adeline uses the telephone in a bakery to call the Alfeld displaced persons camp. She leaves a message for Emil that she and the boys are taking the next train to Alfeld. Several hours later, Emil waits anxiously at the Alfeld train station. He thinks of how his struggles made him “more aware of the power of dreams” and the greatness of God (409). Emil is finally reunited with Adeline, Walt, and Will.

After being reunited, the Martels view every day as “one more miracle, a gift from God” (411). The Martels live in the displaced persons camp for a short time. In the summer of 1947, they move to more permanent housing in Lütgenholzen and try to find a sponsor so they can move to North America. In the summer of 1948, Emil collapses in the fields where he works; the doctors determine he has a tapeworm, which must be removed via surgery.

While Emil recovers in the hospital, he finally tells Adeline about his meeting with Major Haussmann in Dubossary. Adeline reinforces Corporal Gheorghe’s opinion that Emil demonstrated bravery in Dubossary. Emil mentions that he learned from a newspaper that Major Haussmann was arrested after the war and was supposed to be tried at Nuremberg but committed suicide in his jail cell.

A long-lost uncle of Adeline’s agrees to sponsor the Martel family if they work on his farm. In September 1951, the Martels go to Bremerhaven and board the USS General R. M. Blatchford. A week later, they arrive in New York City, where they catch a train to Baker, Montana. Adeline’s aunt and uncle do not appreciate the burden of feeding the Martel family. In March 1952, the Martels leave the farm. Emil gets a job as a concrete mixer in Baker, where he helps build the town’s first hospital.

The Martels rent a house within walking distance of Emil’s work. Walt, now going by Walter, and Will, now going by Bill, find after-school jobs in town. The Martels begin building a house of their own in Baker. Adeline tries to maintain communication with Lydia and Malia, but the closing of the Iron Curtain makes it difficult. Adeline, Emil, Walter, and Bill vow to never live apart again.

Walter is accepted to the School of Architecture at Montana State University in Bozeman. When Adeline and Emil travel to Bozeman to look for a house, a rainstorm forces them onto a gravel road that is a dead end. As the rain breaks, Adeline looks west and sees a “breathtaking valley that unfold[s] […] in a hundred shades of green” (423). Adeline tells Emil that she feels like God painted the valley just for her. Adeline realizes that the Gallatin Valley, where Bozeman is located, is the green valley she has been searching for. She and Emil agree that they will never live anywhere else.

Emil and Adeline spend the rest of their lives in Gallatin Valley. After Emil builds their family home in Bozeman, he starts a construction company. He founds Emil Martel & Son Construction. Bill quits high school, gets married, and begins working for Emil. Walter finishes college and works as an architect until he begins working with Emil and Bill in 1967.

In 1971, Emil learns that his brother, Reinhold, survived 26 years in a gulag in Siberia. Emil and Adeline visit Reinhold in West Germany. Seven years later, Emil and Adeline learn that Reinhold tracked down Rese. Rese visits them in America and reveals that Johann did not survive the journey back to Ukraine in 1945 because he was beaten by Polish militiamen. Karoline passed away in the 1960s in Friedenstal. Emil and Adeline realize that Rese has an alcohol addiction; she refuses their offer to sponsor her to come to America and dies in the 1980s.

In 1979, Walter and Bill buy Emil out of his portion of their construction company. Walter leaves the company in 1982 after a union dispute that turns violent, and the brothers do not speak for three years. In 1985, Emil has gallbladder surgery and almost dies. In 1987, Emil is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and passes away. Adeline continues living in their house in Bozeman. Walter and his wife travel to Europe in 1993 and visit Malia in the former East Germany. Malia dies in 1995. Adeline passes away in 2006, at the age of 90.