24 November 1985
In 3 days it will be the death date of my husband: 27 November 1962 - 23 years ago. On the 4 of December we will have been here for 20 years.
Title and subtitles in colors! Title for a book about my life, Christel of the Black (green) Forest (green), Germany (yellow, red, black). Married for 14 years in Zurich, Switzerland (red, white, red) - now widowed mother of 7 in America (red, white, blue)!
On August the 17 in the year 1926 a little girl was born to Christine Eckenstein and Ernst Ludwig Drautz in the hospital in Lorrach, Baden, Germany.
The mother's hometown was Wittlingen, Kreis, Lorrach and the father was from Heilbronn, Wurtemburg (specifically from the part of the city which is called Neckargartach). That little girl was me, the oldest of 3 sisters:
Hedwig Elisa, born 29 of December 1927
Marie Anna, born 7 of August 1929
My name is Christine, after my mother and grandmother and Emma after one of my God mothers. I had 2 Godmothers and 2 Godfathers: Emma Grimm, which lived on the highway and owned a stove and the post office for the whole town of Wittlingen.
I remember all the homes of my Godparents as if it was yesterday that I frequented them and visited with them as if I was home. Gotte (Godmother in German) Emma also had a daughter about my age or a little older. She was always smiling and friendly and happy. So was Gotte Emma (she was a girlfriend of mother's since they were children), who let me weigh out candy and other things. People were ? and give the mail to the people, if it was a telegram or something special.
It was in her house that I had my first encounter with death when her mother died. It was very small then and someone took me up the stairs to the bedroom. In one of them lay the dead body, richly garnished with roses and carnations and all kinds of other fragrant flowers, remember seeing big white lillies). The fragrance in the air was suffocating me and to this day I feel uncomfortable on funerals and very seldom go to a viewing because it is bothering me to see anyone or anything dead. It always reminds me of that funny feeling I had, when I saw that lifeless body, not really being able to comprehend that it was dead and not being able because of my tender age to understand what death really was.
Gotte Emma's house also comes to mind when I remember an accident my middle sister Hedwig had in front of it on the highway. We had been visiting and were on our way up town to my other God Mother, Emma Matter, who lived next door to my Grandfather's house, where one of my uncles (Fredrich), his wife, Anna, and his children, Fritz, Otto, and Anna, lived with my grandfather.
Being the oldest of us sisters, I was always ahead and I hardly ever walked, but jumped and skipped along the way as long as I can remember - my sisters running behind me. Mother usually did not let us go alone anywhere, but this time we must have been able to escape her, while she was still talking to my Godmother.
Anyway, after crossing the street, my sisters in tow, I heard breaks squeak, turned around and saw my sister, Hedwig, being hit by a motorbike. My mother and neighbors came running, someone grabbed my younger sister and me and brought us to the house again. Someone carried my injured sister and laid her on the couch, then called the doctor and the ambulance.
The doctor said my sister's leg was broken. He put a cast on it and soon the ambulance took her to the hospital in Lorrach, the city I was born. It left an impression on me for the rest of my life. From then on I took my sisters by the hand when we crossed any road and never ran ahead of them again!
In 3 days it will be the death date of my husband: 27 November 1962 - 23 years ago. On the 4 of December we will have been here for 20 years.
Title and subtitles in colors! Title for a book about my life, Christel of the Black (green) Forest (green), Germany (yellow, red, black). Married for 14 years in Zurich, Switzerland (red, white, red) - now widowed mother of 7 in America (red, white, blue)!
On August the 17 in the year 1926 a little girl was born to Christine Eckenstein and Ernst Ludwig Drautz in the hospital in Lorrach, Baden, Germany.
The mother's hometown was Wittlingen, Kreis, Lorrach and the father was from Heilbronn, Wurtemburg (specifically from the part of the city which is called Neckargartach). That little girl was me, the oldest of 3 sisters:
Hedwig Elisa, born 29 of December 1927
Marie Anna, born 7 of August 1929
My name is Christine, after my mother and grandmother and Emma after one of my God mothers. I had 2 Godmothers and 2 Godfathers: Emma Grimm, which lived on the highway and owned a stove and the post office for the whole town of Wittlingen.
I remember all the homes of my Godparents as if it was yesterday that I frequented them and visited with them as if I was home. Gotte (Godmother in German) Emma also had a daughter about my age or a little older. She was always smiling and friendly and happy. So was Gotte Emma (she was a girlfriend of mother's since they were children), who let me weigh out candy and other things. People were ? and give the mail to the people, if it was a telegram or something special.
It was in her house that I had my first encounter with death when her mother died. It was very small then and someone took me up the stairs to the bedroom. In one of them lay the dead body, richly garnished with roses and carnations and all kinds of other fragrant flowers, remember seeing big white lillies). The fragrance in the air was suffocating me and to this day I feel uncomfortable on funerals and very seldom go to a viewing because it is bothering me to see anyone or anything dead. It always reminds me of that funny feeling I had, when I saw that lifeless body, not really being able to comprehend that it was dead and not being able because of my tender age to understand what death really was.
Gotte Emma's house also comes to mind when I remember an accident my middle sister Hedwig had in front of it on the highway. We had been visiting and were on our way up town to my other God Mother, Emma Matter, who lived next door to my Grandfather's house, where one of my uncles (Fredrich), his wife, Anna, and his children, Fritz, Otto, and Anna, lived with my grandfather.
Being the oldest of us sisters, I was always ahead and I hardly ever walked, but jumped and skipped along the way as long as I can remember - my sisters running behind me. Mother usually did not let us go alone anywhere, but this time we must have been able to escape her, while she was still talking to my Godmother.
Anyway, after crossing the street, my sisters in tow, I heard breaks squeak, turned around and saw my sister, Hedwig, being hit by a motorbike. My mother and neighbors came running, someone grabbed my younger sister and me and brought us to the house again. Someone carried my injured sister and laid her on the couch, then called the doctor and the ambulance.
The doctor said my sister's leg was broken. He put a cast on it and soon the ambulance took her to the hospital in Lorrach, the city I was born. It left an impression on me for the rest of my life. From then on I took my sisters by the hand when we crossed any road and never ran ahead of them again!
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