The Family

Yesterday we drove to Bad Hennengen to visit my Uncle Willi at his house where we also met my Cousin Hannelore and Manfred with their children Tobias, Marina and her boyfriend Steffan. Sonia couldn’t make it as she is in Hamburg. Tobias and Sonia are twins. We seem to have twins running every alternate generation through the female side on my German side of the family. I also have twins running through my English side from the family research I have done at home. We had a very enjoyable day with lots of nice food to eat and an unexpected walk. We arrived at about 9.30am which was too early to visit Willi as we weren’t expected until 11am so it gave us time for a look around town. I was very disappointed not to recognize a single thing; especially as I had spent 3 weeks there aged 13. I never saw any of the places that exist in my memory until we got to the house later. Bad Honnengen had their annual wine festival and were busy preparing for the crowds; however some people had already started preparing themselves with beer.

Once it was close enough to our expected arrival time we made our way to Willi’s house and my Dad wasted no time catching up on the Russians and the war. It wasn’t long before Manfred and Hannelore arrived with their family and after short introductions it was time to set off for lunch at the Krone. Lovely food at reasonable prices where they had a choice of set 3 course meals available. As Hannelore and Marina had baked some wonderful cakes to try later, Manfred had the great idea of having a walk following lunch so as to make room for them. All but the elders of the group set off towards the castle. On the way there we stopped off at the cemetery where Hannelore’s Mother Helene is buried. We also saw my Uncle Toni and Auntie Clara’s grave. It is very noticeable how well kept all the graves are kept here compared to the ones in England. Onward to the Castle on the hill, where we saw many eagles and a young owl eating a mouse. On our return journey home we walked through the grape vines only to find that it had been closed off so we had to scramble down between the vines to a footpath below. A short walk back to Willi’s for the highlight of the day, our cakes. Once the cakes were gone Willi presented Mum with a few tablets and potions that he had bought and made for her.

Following the cakefest Willi entertained us with his new electronic keyboard piano. Every time I have visited here Willi has entertained everyone with a different instrument, including a piano accordion, violin, mouthorgan, piano and keyboard. Most of the younger ones took their chance and escaped though the open back patio door to the huge gardens where we found the remainder of Willi’s home made boat. It looks as though he has recently tried to convert it into a submarine. Willi is a little eccentric and I am a bit worried because everyone (including my Mum) thinks I am very like him sharing many genes together. As my family was removed from their house at the end of the war by the Russians and Poles they became refugees and traveled to the part of Germany that became East Germany looking for somewhere to live. For at least 18 months they virtually starved living from the land with such delights as stinging nettle soup. This was particularly hard on Willi as he had been shot towards the end of the war with a bullet that explodes on impact. This shattered his bone and left 5 severe gapping wounds around his leg. He had to look after himself for about a day and a half before help arrived by making a tourniquet to reduce the flow of blood. Willi had some medical knowledge as he had worked in the war as a medic. Once found his wounds were treated but the doctors agreed that he needed his leg amputated to save his life. Willi refused saying he would rather be dead than loose his leg and with hindsight he probably would have died during the 18 months refugee period without it anyway. Willi’s leg healed up and within a few years he was walking around like anyone else. This is probably one of the reasons why he has a general mistrust of doctors to this day, and who could blame him. Willi came to Bad Honnengen as another relative Paul had ended up there as a patient after the war along with several other relative refugees. Willi found a cheep plot of land way up the hill out of Honnengen and built a wooden log cabin to live in. Once Hannelore was born he then started working on the cellar of the proper house and when completed moved in there and keeping chickens in the log cabin. He continued working on the house as he accumulated enough money adding 2 more floors until it is as it is now. An incredible feat considering the tools he must have been using and with a leg that should have been amputated. Also it is a long way up the hill to get materials to. Everyone at the time thought it was madness to build a house in such a place but now the whole area is full of houses and Willi was forced to sell most of his land by compulsory purchase. Once he house was complete Willi’s next project was to build a seafaring boat capable of sailing around the world as he was convinced that the Russians would come back taking that area over as well and he could easily be off on the Rhine with his family and belongings before they arrived. This to me seems slightly odd especially as Willie never learned to swim. Once the cold war was over the boat was dismantled and he moved onto his next project, a perpetual motion machine, forever digging a bigger hole and making bigger buckets without success. His latest, more modest project was “The Bubble” in the front garden where Willi sits inside and watches life go by. Everybody knows the benefits of bright lights and sunlight to increase the feeling of well being but few have the courage to practice it.