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.