My Life in a Nutshell

My Life in a Nutshell

From a poor little girl in Germany to a widowed mother of seven in America.

On August 17, 1926, I was born as the first and oldest girl to my mother, Christine Eckenstein, and my father, Ludwig Ernst Drautz, in Lorrach, Baden Germany.

My mother's maiden name is Eckenstein, meaning cornerstone. This name seemed to have an impact in their lives! My grandfather, whom I have known and adored, was a gentle, kind man. I remember when I was working in the city where I was born (Lorrach, Baden, Germany) my grandfather came and brought me a big basket of fruit: grapes, apples, peaches, pears, plums and nuts.

We spent some time together going shopping going to a park. Then I walked him to the train station. I still see him in front of me: a small, spiritual man, always very quiet and content. As we walked that particular day, it was so cold that an icicle had formed on his nose.  I was embarrassed, yet respected him too much to tell him about it.  So for a while I walked a step behind him!  At the train station the ice melted and Grandfather never knew!

I loved him soo much in his only good suit he possessed, hand-sewn by my grandmother who had heart problems and by doctor's order, was to stay in bed at all times! My mother told me when I was married that she had to wash, clean house, cook, when she was very young. Her mother, I think, died when mother was nine years old.

She ran the household all alone, with the help and guidance of her kind, but intelligence of her father. Well-to-do families would send their daughters to Switzerland in to rich families to learn art and higher education, culture and manners! Mother sure had all of this - she had been given in to a Swiss family by the name of Backman in Basel, just across the border of Lorrach.

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