Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

Oma was quite different. When we visited her, each time we came from Posen, she would often sit in the lounge and play patience. This was one of her favourite past times.

On one of those occasions, I came again to her. She was in a talking mood, and we talked about the time when we were still small.

"Do you remember, one holiday time, all four of you grand-children were sitting around the table in the servery, and we were playing cards?"

"You mean, when the lightening struck your house?" "Yes, everything seemed as bright as daylight for a second, which was followed by a tremendous crash of thunder. We all stood up at the same time, it must have been like a shock. Then everything was plunged in darkness, as the electricity went off."

"We were lucky, you had the lightening conductor on top of the house, otherwise the whole house could have burnt down."

"I'm not so sure it could have, for I remember, after I lit a candle, we all sat down again, when suddenly water came rushing down from the ceiling, where the lamp hung. You cried out: "Die Sündflut, die Sündflut" (the biblical food). We were all terrified, but your interpretation made us really laugh."

"Didn't the water tank burst in the attic, after that lightening?" "Yes, that was the cause of the flood."

On rainy days, the four of us would spend hours and hours playing rummy in Oma's house. Even when the rain had stopped, we would still sit there, until Oma came in and said: "Shouldn't you be running outside a bit to get rid of your surplus energy?"

That's when we stopped for the day, but the next would be a rummy day again.

Oma's life must have been rather monotonous, but she never complained. Her cousin Gertrud Schmid from Stuttgart, came to stay with Oma for lengthy periods. She helped her over the loneliness. They would sit on garden chairs under the shade of large trees and talk for hours. Tante Gertrud became quite popular with us, and when I did not seem to make any progress in English at school, she gave me some good coaching, especially in pronunciation, as she had been a teacher all her life, and had lived in England for some time.

In Spring we usually were looking forward to Summer, as there was not so much to do at home. We preferred either Winter or Summer. It was not unusual, therefore, for us to be waiting impatiently for summer to come in 1941.

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