It had snowed for days; I stood at the window and admired the shimmering layer of snow making it look like a winter wonderland. The preparation for Christmas had started. Father’s birthday was between Christmas and New Year, but we always celebrated it on Christmas Eve. The Christmas tree was decorated, fragrance of the cookies filled the whole house. Father’s birthday cake was waiting in the pantry, decorated with  marzipan flowers, it was my duty to put the candles on. There was a special excitement in the air, maybe my brother would come home, we all will be together! I was so looking forward to the Christmas Eve. We usually had a great family dinner, we would be fourteen around the big dinner table. My chair was near the big palm tree that spread it branches over a smaller table in the corner of the large room, all the cookies and fruit were waiting for us. Mikus, my dear cat, would sit right next to me on a special bench, my brother’s chair was on my other side. It was 1944, the war was raging through Europe. All had changed, all I wished for was one more Christmas with my family together. This Christmas we were only a few at the table, my brother was kidnapped on his seventeenth birthday in Riga, the capital of Latvia, we hadn’t seen or heard from him for a long time. Many other family members had been deported or in hiding. I insisted that a chair is put right next to me for my brother,  just in hope that he would come home for Christmas. We heard a knock on the door, I instantly looked on the empty chair next to me, my brother’s chair. My brother, my dear brother has come back! It will be a real Christmas! The door opened, my Brother badly wounded stumbled inside. I ran to him, put my arms around him, we looked at each other for a moment and he collapsed on the floor. Shrill shots sounded through the house, some armed soldiers had broken the lock of the door and entered. They took my brother away at gunpoint. The frightening silence after they left was interrupted by a distant single shot. With sadness in my heart, I realized that it was the night of  “Birthday that wasn’t”.