While trying to figure out where to go next with my blog, I kept circling around to my German Aunt Ella. I would like to remember my Aunt Ella tonite. My Aunt Ella lived in Oberammergau, Germany all her life. She passed away in April at 72 after a visit here to the United States.
Her 73rd birthday would have been at the end of this month and I suppose that is why I keep thinking about her. Aunt Ella was very special and was my Mom's only sister. My Aunt Ella, Mom and their brother Walter grew up in the aftermath of WW2. Mom's parents built the house that my Aunt Ella lived in almost all of her life. Mom is old enough to remember that when the Americans got to Oberammergau, they turned all the Germans out of their homes. The Germans had to live where they could and eat what they could find. Aunt Ella, Mom and Uncle Walter lost both of their parents when my Mom was 15. Aunt Ella was married with 1 child by then. She and my Uncle Karl moved into my grandparents house and raised 3 children there. I will never forget seeing the house for the first time, as an adult, when I was 21. This was a part of my heritage - the place my Mom grew up and the place that welcomed us both back when I visited the second time in 1980. I had gone back when I was two and I actually remembered that I used to play with my cousin's Lego's that were stored under the kitchen table which was built into the corner of the kitchen. Germany holds one of my earliest fond memories.
When I did get to visit with my Mom, language was a small barrier but easily overcome if I could get my Aunt to speak in English. I often warned my Mom that Aunt Ella knew a lot more than she let on. My Aunt Ella had a tiny garden plot in her side yard and on several visits I would stop at the blumen shop for flowers - she was always so excited to get flowers. One year for her birthday, I had a house plant delivered for her birthday and Aunt Ella told me that she argued with the delivery person that the plant could not be possibly hers because NO ONE had ever had anything delivered to her. She went on and on about that plant. I was so excited to have done that for her. She was almost as excited to get edelweiss but didn't want to tell me that they wouldn't make it because her garden wasn't on the side of a mountain. We got a good laugh out of that.
I may have to blog about Aunt Ella in phases. We share such a rich history. The story of my grandparents is pretty different - my Mom had never seen her Dad until he came home from a Russian Prison Camp after the war was over. Conditions were horrible in the camps, extreme poverty, sickness, frostbite, etc and my Grandfather came home sick. Mom said he never recovered. That's just part of my history.
Everybody wants their story to be told. I will keep telling it until it's finished. They are interesting - all of them. I think the reason I miss my Aunt Ella is because I have started to realize that when I take my oldest daughter to Germany to visit for her first time next year, I won't be going to my Aunt Ella's house to visit her ever again. I am glad I faithfully recorded the last 4 visits in scrapbooks. I don't need the scrapbook, Aunt Ella lives on in my memory and my heart.
Gute Nacht die Freunde (good night friends)
Rowdy
Her 73rd birthday would have been at the end of this month and I suppose that is why I keep thinking about her. Aunt Ella was very special and was my Mom's only sister. My Aunt Ella, Mom and their brother Walter grew up in the aftermath of WW2. Mom's parents built the house that my Aunt Ella lived in almost all of her life. Mom is old enough to remember that when the Americans got to Oberammergau, they turned all the Germans out of their homes. The Germans had to live where they could and eat what they could find. Aunt Ella, Mom and Uncle Walter lost both of their parents when my Mom was 15. Aunt Ella was married with 1 child by then. She and my Uncle Karl moved into my grandparents house and raised 3 children there. I will never forget seeing the house for the first time, as an adult, when I was 21. This was a part of my heritage - the place my Mom grew up and the place that welcomed us both back when I visited the second time in 1980. I had gone back when I was two and I actually remembered that I used to play with my cousin's Lego's that were stored under the kitchen table which was built into the corner of the kitchen. Germany holds one of my earliest fond memories.
When I did get to visit with my Mom, language was a small barrier but easily overcome if I could get my Aunt to speak in English. I often warned my Mom that Aunt Ella knew a lot more than she let on. My Aunt Ella had a tiny garden plot in her side yard and on several visits I would stop at the blumen shop for flowers - she was always so excited to get flowers. One year for her birthday, I had a house plant delivered for her birthday and Aunt Ella told me that she argued with the delivery person that the plant could not be possibly hers because NO ONE had ever had anything delivered to her. She went on and on about that plant. I was so excited to have done that for her. She was almost as excited to get edelweiss but didn't want to tell me that they wouldn't make it because her garden wasn't on the side of a mountain. We got a good laugh out of that.
I may have to blog about Aunt Ella in phases. We share such a rich history. The story of my grandparents is pretty different - my Mom had never seen her Dad until he came home from a Russian Prison Camp after the war was over. Conditions were horrible in the camps, extreme poverty, sickness, frostbite, etc and my Grandfather came home sick. Mom said he never recovered. That's just part of my history.
Everybody wants their story to be told. I will keep telling it until it's finished. They are interesting - all of them. I think the reason I miss my Aunt Ella is because I have started to realize that when I take my oldest daughter to Germany to visit for her first time next year, I won't be going to my Aunt Ella's house to visit her ever again. I am glad I faithfully recorded the last 4 visits in scrapbooks. I don't need the scrapbook, Aunt Ella lives on in my memory and my heart.
Gute Nacht die Freunde (good night friends)
Rowdy
1 comment:
This is so awesome! Your post almost made me cry! Thanks for sharing the story of your aunt!
"Gute Nacht" from Germany,
Coni
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