Aunt Lina

Frau Alten Michelstadt, Germany (May 15th, 2004)

“Frau Alten” they call her...
This 83 year old woman is my ‘Aunt Lina’… my father’s aunt… his mother’s only sister.

She was a school teacher in a little town in Germany called Michelstadt, her home now for more than 60 years. Many of the leaders in her town were once her pupils and sat in her class from grade 1 to 8.

Today, with eyes full of life and a face full of years, she is still a teacher: patiently teacher me German, telling story after hilarious story of the history of our family, and spending time with many people from the town as they talk to her at a restaurant or on the street.

Lina is a firecracker! She reminds me of… and please excuse the comparison because I mean this in the most loving and respectful way, but she reminds me of… Yoda. Her wrinkled face with her kinds eyes full of sparkle recount a sage wisdom that an 800 year old Jedi master might have. Even her cane, although now a necessity, does not reflect the true essence of the woman holding it. She does not seem frail, but strong in some way.

My aunt Lina… She is a woman that has lived many years. She lived through WWII literally. She has seen her share of heartache and still loves and greets each day with open arms. To see her smile at a bowl of strawberries (‘Erdbeeren’ she calls them) makes you begin to see life with her child-like fascination.

Lina was also a musician. She was the organist for her local Catholic church for 60 years. She started playing for the church at age 10. Last night she told us about a Saturday night that she went dancing (the waltz) with a bunch of friends and didn’t get home until 6:30am… When they got home they changed clothes and went to church! Reminds me of some of my Sunday mornings… By the way, my great grandfather didn’t care that she was out so late because he was playing in the band…

Tomorrow we are going to Frankfurt to take a tour of the Rhein River. At a restaurant called Drei Hassen in Michelstadt next to the Rathaus tonight, Lina began to tell us the story of Loreley who “catches fisherman” with her long blonde hair and her beautiful voice. Lina said that Loreley sits up high on a hill near the Rhein and sings her song. And as she sings, she mesmerizes the fisherman and they drown… And as Lina told this story with her 83 year old voice she began to sing the Loreley song softly and tenderly like a mother to her child… I didn’t want it to end.

Lina also told my father about the last time she saw him in Germany… It was at Wurzburg and her father and mother handed him through the window of a train to my grand parents as they were leaving for America. Lina said that my great grandmother could not look at any of my father’s toys or clothes for months because it made her cry. “She missed you. We all missed you very, very much”… And with those words I, for the first time, felt a connection to my great grandparents. I finally understood just a little of the loss that they must have felt to be cut off from their blood for the rest of their lives. I never knew them. My father only saw them once after that day, when he was 13. “But so goes life”, Lina says... And again she is teaching me something.