Rumors

The greatest mystery on my mom's side is wrapped up in the rumor about her paternal grandfather. There is the glamorous claim that he was the illegitimate son of Graf Otto von Bismarck. I asked my mom's step-mom, Grandma Anne, about it the other day. Apparently my mom's younger half-brother, Paul, went on a trip to German with his elementary school. They visited the mother house for the order of nuns that ran his school. In the infirmary, two older nuns got out of bed to stand and show respect to little Paul - the idea being that he resembled Bismarck so much. Also, Grandma Anne said she had a cousin from Bavaria that had remarked to her about what a fine looking man her husband was - supposedly to mean that he also resembled Bismark. I told these two stories to my mom, and she said that she had also been told that she looked like Bismark. I did read once that Bismark had approximately 100 illegitimate children, but it's still an interesting story. I wonder if we'll ever know...