The rainbow never sets

Gertrud is the sister of Mr. Rimpau, the owner of Emersleben. He is still in an American prison camp, but is soon to be released."

The large kitchen with pantry made Fräulein Lina very happy. "This is a lovely area to work in. A sink with running water, but where is the stove?"

We needed to call Fräulein Rimpau, who was introduced to us all. "I hope we are all going to get along well here in this flat. I'm sharing the bathroom with you, but this kitchen is all yours."

"I was going to ask you about the stove." "Oh, yes, I can imagine that you have never seen a stove like this." She opened what looked like a cupboard with a double door. Inside were two shelves. Below the double door was a drawer full of ashes.

"This is it. We call it 'Grude'. It's a stove and oven at the same time. The ashes contain glowing coal. If you want to cook, you just remove the ashes from the top and expose the layer of red-hot coal. Sometimes you may need to add a shovel of this finely ground coal by just sprinkling it over. It keeps burning all the time. You keep the kettle here and you have always hot water. It's a wonderful stove."

Fräulein Lina shook her head, "I'll have to get used to that first, and it may take a while."

"Just one thing you need to remember: cooking is very slow with the grude, you need to start much earlier than you would be used to. Another thing, there is always a little dust around, so keep the lids on the saucepans."

Fräulein Lina did not get used to the grude. Mutter agreed to keep the fire going, but Fräulein Lina did most of the cooking, as she had done at home. None of us liked the grude, as the food always tasted slightly acidy.

Gertrud Rimpau introduced us the following day to Mally von Versen, the secretary of the farm. She had a room in the flat upstairs. She was young and very cheerful, and we felt that we would get on together. She had already been of great value to Vater during his settling in time. She knew practically everyone and everything concerning the farm.

*

Irene Lucht with her parents and brother's family had travelled with my parents all the way from Sapowice to Gross Marzehns, near Berlin. They had stayed there when our family moved to Westerhausen. As there was no border between us and them after the Russian takeover, and there was room in the flat upstairs, Vater sent a letter via a courier, inviting them to come over. They came soon after we had arrived. This meant more workers for the farm, particularly as Irene's brother was a mechanic, and as harvest had started, the farm needed all available labourers.

Every able-bodied person was drawn into the workforce to help. The

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