Some stories sneak up on you.

This is one of them.
James Hundley is a 63-year-old Chicago mailman whose route includes a large building where my two sons and a son-in-law have their video production office. Every three or four weeks I pay a visit, always hoping to run into Mr. Hundley.
Some people are fountains, some are drains.
James Hundley is a geyser.
Never have I met a more friendly, polite, upbeat person.

But there's more to him than that, something I discovered a few weeks ago by asking a simple question.
"Where are you from?"
His answer triggered images in my mind, images from old black-and-white newsreels, some difficult to watch.
I knew in an instant that James Hundley, the happy mailman, had seen humanity at its worst.
How he got through that...how we got through that...is a story for the ages.
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