The rainbow never sets

lined with holly bushes, leading to our private burial place with the family tomb, surrounded by a fence.

"Let's go first to the tomb," he said. We stood along the fence and looked at the brick building, which had a door on the side facing us, and a window on the opposite side. Behind the door a few steps led to the tomb itself.

"Why is Onkel Walter's coffin standing there all on its own?" I wanted to know.

"There is enough space for several more coffins. One day Opa and Oma's will be standing there."

I couldn't imagine that anyone living now could one day be dead. Then I thought of Vater losing his brother. How terrible that must have been for him. I could never lose Günter, it would tear me apart.

"Why is Anna Berta, Onkel Werner and Tante Margaret's daughter, buried here and not inside the tomb?"

"She died when she was only three months old," Mutter said. "They didn't want her inside. There's plenty of space between the fence and the tomb."

"You can bury me here when I die," said Vater. "I don't want to be inside the tomb either."

"Oh, Vater!" I said. "Stop it!" I turned away from this place of the dead. Life was still all in front of me, and I didn't want to think about death on this lovely autumn day.

"Please, Vater, tell us some more about your life." Vater looked into the distance. His mind was obviously still somewhere else.

"Where was I?" Mutter helped him out: "In Antwerp." "Oh yes. I came back from Antwerp in 1912. Meanwhile a new railroad had been built to Grodzisk in 1909, with a station at Strykowo. To allow us all-weather access to the station, the Government cobbled the road to Strykowo. With that Opa could grow sugarbeet, which went by rail via Grodzisk to the sugar factory at Opalenica. He made a lot of money with that, and instead of living it up, as others might have done, Opa ploughed it back into the farm. He built new and much better homes for all the workers, the ones that are still there, and modernised the starch factory, and built the cow shed and the stables for the horses. He also added the top of the eastern wing to the manor house, put running water through the house and had a septic tank built. Later in 1915, when because of the war kerosene was hard to get, he put a generator into the factory and connected electricity to all the stables and the manor house.

"Conditions in the village also improved. The yellow post coach which delivered our mail from Buk, came now from Stţeszew. When I came back from Antwerp, I wanted to follow Opa's footsteps. To do this I had to learn farming, first with a friend of Opa's nearby for a year. The second place

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