Limerick: Lucky Lindy Poem by Kim Barney

Background story:

A hatmaker in Munich, Germany, Brigitte Hesshaimer, and her three small children were visited a few times each year by a tall, mysterious American they knew as Careau Kent. He cooked them huge breakfasts of sausages and banana pancakes and told them tales of his adventures around the world... before disappearing again a week or two later.

The mother finally confessed to the children that he was their father, but refused to tell them his real name. She also warned them that they were not to talk about him outside their immediate family, or he might disappear forever.

One of the grown children was cleaning out a storeroom years later and accidentally discovered a box containing more than 100 love letters written to their mother. They were only signed with the initial C, but there was also a magazine article about Charles Lindbergh. When confronted by her daughter, Brigitte confessed that Careau Kent was indeed Charles Lindbergh, but begged the children not to reveal the fact until after she (Brigitte) was dead.

They honored her wishes, and two years after she died, they went public. In 2003, they agreed to let the University of Munich test their DNA. The results came back positive. Lindbergh is their father.

The German magazine Focus has reported that Lindbergh also had an affair with Brigitte Hesshaimer's sister, Marietta. So far Marietta's two sons are refusing to take DNA tests.

Another of my boyhood heroes shot down...

Source of my information: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader # 17

I wonder about the name Hesshaimer. To me, Hessheimer seems more German.

For younger readers who may not have heard of Charles Lindbergh, he became famous in 1927 for being the first person to fly solo nonstop from New York City to Paris. He is pictured with his airplane, The Spirit of St. Louis.