August 17, 1926
On this data I was born in the hospital in Lorrach, Baden, Germany. My mother's name is Christine Drautz, geb. Eckenstein. My father's name is Ernst Ludwig Drautz.
My mother's hometown is Wittlingen, Kreis, Lorrach, Germany. My father's hometown is Heilbronn, Wurtemburg, Germany.
For the first month they lived in Wollbach, a neighbor town of Wittlingen. I am not sure of the name! Then they moved to Mullheim, Baden. My grandfather bought a nursery for them because my father was a gardener.
I can still remember the nursery. It had a big pear tree in one corner of the garden. My mother told me that one day I climbed the ladder on the tree, right up in to the top (very high). There I was sitting, begging for someone to get me down.
I was only about 3 years old when my parents got divorced. I have two sisters, tow and one years younger than me.
My mother told me that she made my father promise not to have any alcohol on their wedding. He promised, but after their wedding he started drinking again. My grandfather brought a lot of money (he was the wealthiest farmer in town) from time to time to my mother. As soon as my grandfather left, my father would take the money and go on a trip with his motorbike.
When he came back, he would bring gifts for everyone, but the money was gone. He brought home a piano and other expensive things. Finally, after the 3rd child and when there was no money for bread, my mother left my father.
We moved in to a loft above a barn about a block away from the nursery. All the things were auctioned off and my mother divorced my father. The people my mother rented from were farmers and let my mother work for them, I think. Gradually, she started a business with pretzels, yarn, and material.
She had a big woven basket hanging on her arm and went from house to house to sell pretzels. In time she accumulated many regular customers and then started to do the same in other towns, especially a tourist and hot-well-bath-town, named Badenweiler.
The wealthy people would frequently stay there to cure their many "ailments" and spend their money in any way they could. There were many, many hotels accommodating the rich, where my mother always made good business. We would take the tramway to reach the town, embedded in to the foot of the Black Forest. When I was a little older, but still below school age, I would accompany my mother and sell tiny pincushions I had made from left over yarn my mother gave me.
Also in spring when the violets were blooming, my little feet carried me into the meadows where an unmistakable scent let me know where the little flowers were hidden in the dry grass of yesteryear. On my arm was hanging a little bucket with water in it.
Once I had found the treasure I was after, a carpet of soft-scented, tiny, velvety, violet-colored flowers with a friendly yellow dot in the middle of their faces. I was the happiest girl on earth. I put the bucket gently in the grass so it would not tip over and spill the water; then I would let out an acclamation of joy, "Oh, look at that" for all living creatures that were in reach of my voice to hear: buzzing flies, humming bees, gliding butterflies and Father in Heaven, who I knew was looking down on me at this moment of gladness and smiling.
For I knew, it was He who had provided me with the abundance of thousands of tiny flowers, looking at me with their smiling faces and waiting to be gathered up and make someone happy. Carefully I would pick them up as close to the root as I could, so the stems would be long enough to reach in to a small vase. Hastily my little fingers would make one bouquet after another with some thread I carried in my picket, put them in to the water and cover them up with my handkerchief to protect them from the morning sun, which now cast a friendly face on everything.
My work had to be done fast, so I could present my clients with the smell and sight of morning freshness.
On this data I was born in the hospital in Lorrach, Baden, Germany. My mother's name is Christine Drautz, geb. Eckenstein. My father's name is Ernst Ludwig Drautz.
My mother's hometown is Wittlingen, Kreis, Lorrach, Germany. My father's hometown is Heilbronn, Wurtemburg, Germany.
For the first month they lived in Wollbach, a neighbor town of Wittlingen. I am not sure of the name! Then they moved to Mullheim, Baden. My grandfather bought a nursery for them because my father was a gardener.
I can still remember the nursery. It had a big pear tree in one corner of the garden. My mother told me that one day I climbed the ladder on the tree, right up in to the top (very high). There I was sitting, begging for someone to get me down.
I was only about 3 years old when my parents got divorced. I have two sisters, tow and one years younger than me.
My mother told me that she made my father promise not to have any alcohol on their wedding. He promised, but after their wedding he started drinking again. My grandfather brought a lot of money (he was the wealthiest farmer in town) from time to time to my mother. As soon as my grandfather left, my father would take the money and go on a trip with his motorbike.
When he came back, he would bring gifts for everyone, but the money was gone. He brought home a piano and other expensive things. Finally, after the 3rd child and when there was no money for bread, my mother left my father.
We moved in to a loft above a barn about a block away from the nursery. All the things were auctioned off and my mother divorced my father. The people my mother rented from were farmers and let my mother work for them, I think. Gradually, she started a business with pretzels, yarn, and material.
She had a big woven basket hanging on her arm and went from house to house to sell pretzels. In time she accumulated many regular customers and then started to do the same in other towns, especially a tourist and hot-well-bath-town, named Badenweiler.
The wealthy people would frequently stay there to cure their many "ailments" and spend their money in any way they could. There were many, many hotels accommodating the rich, where my mother always made good business. We would take the tramway to reach the town, embedded in to the foot of the Black Forest. When I was a little older, but still below school age, I would accompany my mother and sell tiny pincushions I had made from left over yarn my mother gave me.
Also in spring when the violets were blooming, my little feet carried me into the meadows where an unmistakable scent let me know where the little flowers were hidden in the dry grass of yesteryear. On my arm was hanging a little bucket with water in it.
Once I had found the treasure I was after, a carpet of soft-scented, tiny, velvety, violet-colored flowers with a friendly yellow dot in the middle of their faces. I was the happiest girl on earth. I put the bucket gently in the grass so it would not tip over and spill the water; then I would let out an acclamation of joy, "Oh, look at that" for all living creatures that were in reach of my voice to hear: buzzing flies, humming bees, gliding butterflies and Father in Heaven, who I knew was looking down on me at this moment of gladness and smiling.
For I knew, it was He who had provided me with the abundance of thousands of tiny flowers, looking at me with their smiling faces and waiting to be gathered up and make someone happy. Carefully I would pick them up as close to the root as I could, so the stems would be long enough to reach in to a small vase. Hastily my little fingers would make one bouquet after another with some thread I carried in my picket, put them in to the water and cover them up with my handkerchief to protect them from the morning sun, which now cast a friendly face on everything.
My work had to be done fast, so I could present my clients with the smell and sight of morning freshness.
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