The rainbow never sets

write down for me some of her memoirs. She must have done it for Christmas 1945, but I have no recollection ever reading it before starting on my own memoirs. I could well imagine, that being so extremely shy, she left it in her drawer until she died, where Mutter had found it and had intended to give it to me, but because of circumstances had forgotten all about it, until I found it in her things, after she had died.

One day Fräulein Lina's niece appeared in Emersleben. She was a trained teacher, and was immediately offered a job in Quenstedt. She moved there and wanted her aunt to stay with her. Thus we had to say good-bye to a most loyal person whom I had known ever since I can remember. It was hard for Oma, but we resolved that we would visit her from time to time.

Mutter was now in sole charge of the kitchen. Her cooking skills improved as she gained more experience. She was, however, a great improviser, quite unconventional. She would cook stinging nettles for vegetables or make jam from elder berries. Unbeknown to Vater, she would go to the grain store occasionally, to fetch a bag of wheat. This was ground in a coffee grinder and cooked as porridge. All this unconventional food didn't taste nice, but at least it filled our stomachs. Living on a farm had its advantage, as we had enough potatoes and vegetables, and wheat, but meat was very scarce. Occasionally we could supplement our rations with eggs, a chicken or a duck, or for Christmas with a goose.

Christmas 1945 was to be the last time we saw the Rimpau family. Vater had enjoyed working with them, especially with Mr. Rimpau, after he had been released from prison camp. Gradually the Russian system of farming being run by the state took hold also in Germany. Mr. Rimpau lost his farm to the state, but at first he was allowed to continue working there. After Christmas he and his whole family were given 24 hours's notice to leave. Fortunately, they had foreseen this and had rescued some of their wheat varieties and important records which they took across the border to West Germany, which then became the basis for a successful business there. As Gertrud Rimpau had to leave too, we were able to take over her two rooms. Gerda received her bedroom and her lounge became our lounge room. From then on I had my own room, but not for very long, as Onkel Helmut, Mutter's brother, moved in with us soon, and I had to share the room with him. He had had polio as a boy and walked with a heavy limp.

After the Emersleben farm had become state property, Vater became a government employee, administering Emersleben as he had done before. He was not at liberty to take any produce for himself, unless he had the express permission. In his upright way, he would never cheat, neither the Nazis during the war, nor the Communists afterwards. Mutter took it on herself to supplement our food rations behind his back. Apart from the occasional bag of wheat, she would also go into the cow shed and get

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