Trapp Family Lodge | Stowe, VT 10/6/2024 3:46PM 

Just there to visit a lodge, there happened to be a visiting heiress and granddaughter of the Von Trapp legacy. They are known to be the family in which The Sound Of Music was based off of. A household classic for cinematic musicals, the Austrian family opportunistically escaped the nazi regime through a harmonic choral concert. From my naive perspective, the narrative was just about the governess Maria, bonding with children who were cold to her. Now that I’ve aged quite a bit, I find it absolutely insane that I did not process the threatening Nazi conflict considering the fact that I counted sheep to the soundtrack. 

To meet Kristina purely by chance I did not know it was a real family- even though they were fictionalized. I know she was not related to Julie Andrews, but Julie Andrews is a respected icon of mine. Her angelic vocal control and theatrics whisked me away. For her to honor Maria Von Trapp is a testament to real-life Maria’s heroism. From the song introducing Maria as untamable and flighty, “How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?”. I felt like I had contained a fleeing dream I didn’t know I had when I received an autograph from Krista. It is rare for nostalgia to be rewarded.