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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Lost and Found!

I found it! My box of old family photos which I had misplaced. I am so elated! I wanted to post a picture of my mother on Mother's Day this year but then I could not find the box. I have precious few pictures of my family in Germany. When you move a lot stuff gets lost. I can only imagine what it would be like to live through a flood or Hurricane and find all your precious family photos ruined...Luckily mine were just misplaced.

So meet my mom! She has been such a great source of inspiration for my work.
This is Frieda Johanna Stellwagen in 1960. She was born in 1936, as the second oldest child of ten children, to Martha Stellwagen and Friedrich Stellwagen. Her dream was to become a seamstress. But she never did because she could not get an apprenticeship and instead had to work to support the family. As the oldest daughter, she had to help raise her younger siblings. At age 13 she was made to live with a wealthy doctor's family to be their maid and babysitter. Her dad went off to fight in Russia in the WWII. He ended up as a prisoner of war leaving Martha without husband and provider for her ten children. When Friedrich returned from the war he was a broken and sick man. Life would never be the same for the Stellwagen family.

4 comments:

woolies said...

Your Mom is beautiful, and now I want to hear more of the story.

germandolls said...

Thank you, Sara. My mother had a pretty rough life. Sadly beauty can lead to a lot of trouble...

Jennifer said...

I have really enjoyed reading your blog! Thank you for sharing a bit of your mom's story and I am so glad you found the pictures.

Marcus said...

Found the pictures? After accusing DH of sending them off to Goodwill in some random box of junk, and stomping long German foot in frustration, multiple times, found the pictures. Crazy Germans have a saying about "spreading butter on my toast" which is equivalent to our "rubbing it in." My toast was sodden with lost picture butter. Found the pictures.