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  Submitted by Jennifer Bishop (Old Milford, Milford, OH) on May 19th, 2011 - 10:34 am EST
  During World War 2 many soldiers passed through our beautiful rotunda. My grandfather, John Bedford Bishop was one of these men. His mother, my great grandmother, volunteered her services in the USO located in the Rookwood Tea Room. While assisting the soldiers, she befriended a woman by the name of Gertrude Steinwart who was also volunteering for the USO. When my grandpa Bishop was coming home at the end of the war, he came back through Union Terminal and stopped by the USO to visit his mother. Once they were reunited, she proceeded to introduce him to Gertrude who was about the same age as my grandpa. Gertrude was engaged at the time but it did not stop my grandpa from asking her on a date. Apparently it went well because Gertrude broke off the engagement and they were married three months later.
  
  My grandparents are gone now but while they were still around they would comment about the terminal from time to time. The day I told my grandmother that I was hired to work at Union Terminal was the first time I heard the full story of how they met. I had known that Union Terminal was a special place to our family but now that I know the full story it makes the building take on a new life. It still takes my breath away when I walk into the rotunda late at night when it is silent or early in the morning before guests arrive and I think of the people who have walked through this magnificent room.
  
  Although my grandparents met many years ago, their meeting in our USO still has rippling effects that last to today. Their son, my dad, volunteers at Union Terminal for many of the special exhibits including Titanic, Pirates and Holiday Junction and dons a big white beard and a red velvet suit for the month of December. He has talked my mother into her own red velvet dress and white wig to assist him. I spend every weekday at Union Terminal as well. I write and teach learning labs to school children visiting on field trips and walk past the Rookwood Tearoom several times a day. I often think about my grandparents as I pass by and what would have happened if not for their chance meeting in the USO and how it has affected our lives. If you have had your picture taken with a pirate, Captain Smith of the Titanic, our own personal Santa Clause or if your child has taken a field trip to the Cincinnati Museum Center, this meeting at the USO has effected you also.
  
  Union Terminal is an amazing building that holds many more stories like the story of my family. Help us make sure that it is around for many other families who still have their own stories to write!