News in Norwegian......

To most of you reading this today it's just 'Wednesday 12th November', just another day, a day of normality, off to work, taking the children to school, a supermarket shop maybe? or a little preparation for Christmas festivities. To our family it holds a little sadness but also love and fond memories of a strong and wonderful woman that left our world one year ago today surrounded by her children as she passed away, free of pain and suffering. The woman I talk of is my Mother-in-law; Adit.

It was just under 80 years since Adit (pronounced 'A'dit) was welcomed into this world by her mother Friedl and father Willie in Berlin, Germany, and who would have thought where her life would take her, on a path to England where she would spend the rest of her life.

This courageous young woman, just 18 years of age came, over to Britain in the late 1940's from her home in war blitzed Berlin, it had been an extremely frightening place for her to grow up during the war years. I remember her telling me on one occasion of how frightened she was when one day the Russians invaded, forcing her and her family into a secret hiding place in the flat above the bakery where she lived, her story had similarities to The Diaries of Anne Frank.

It must have been terrifying for her to travel, on her own, through a very fragile Europe before arriving in England, which up until 3 years previously, was the enemy of the leaders of her country...and to make matters even harder she didn't speak a word of English, How brave this young lady was in her search of a better life.

Her English however turned out to be perfect, although she did manage the odd spoonerism or two, which down the years has had us in fits of laughter with her jumbled up words. When she'd talk of 'Cleest Intwood' (Clint Eastwood to you and I), or when she went to buy fitted sheets and asked the shop assistant where she could find "Shitted Feet"!!

Another fond memory that has me in fits of giggles is when I remember the story of her sometimes rather suspect hearing! She was extremely confused one day when the national news reader announced; "And now for the news in Norwegian"; what he actually said was "And now for the news in your region"!

There were many times, as with all us, when she'd have to reach deep within for that inner strength to get her through difficult times. One of these being when her father, Willie Klopsch, was living in what became West Berlin. In August 1961, he was working on the east side of the city the day the Berlin Wall went up. He was unable ever to return home, his family home where is wife and family were awaiting his return from work that day. That never happened. Can you imagine, leaving for work one day and never being able to return to your home? He died 6 weeks before the wall came down in late 1989. I remember being in St Louis, Missouri the day the wall came down, such an historic day. Little did I know at that time what significance it would have for my future family, the story it would hold for my daughters, of their great-grandfather.

Another time that Adit showed her true strength and spirit was when her husband 'Ted' sadly died over 20 years ago. Instead of becoming a lost soul, she started to re-build her life again and after 30 years of marriage she decided that life was for enjoying. She began to travel and loved it, visiting The United States, California, New York, Chicago...Australia and Europe.

Adit kept a very close circle of friends over the years, many of whom were German. We still don't know how she managed to find so many German friends, but she did! One of these friends included a wonderful lady, Ilsa, who was a friend going back to her childhood days in Berlin, they would often travel back in their minds to the fun they'd had together during those early years. It was lovely that she still had such a strong connection with her past. In fact the picture at the start of this post is of Adit (left) and Ilsa at 16 yrs of age, proudly wearing clothes they'd made from remnants during the war. I believe these particular dresses were made of parachute silk.

Her 2 bundles of joy were her only grandchildren, my children, Imogen and Beatrice. When Imogen was born just over 4 years ago, Adit was no longer Adit/mum anymore but suddenly became Omi, which is an affectionate term in German for Grandmother. Her biggest regret was that her time would be cut short with them. She would have dearly loved to see them grow just a little bit older. How I cried when I walked away from the hospice just a year ago holding their tiny little hands, knowing that the goodbyes we'd just said to this woman whom we all loved so much would be for the last time. How I wanted to run back in and hug her just one more time whilst she was with us instead of having to stay strong and happy for my two little girls.

Omi lives on in many ways however...Imogen has taken on her German formal side and has Adit as her middle name, whilst Beatrice has her looks, expressions and sense of fun, oh, and lets not forget the singing, like her Omi she sings ALL the time! Both however, have inherited her stubbornness and independence!!!! Oh my, am I in for a fun time ahead! Imogen can however say "Fitted Sheets" so that's an advantage!!!

Adit, we all miss you greatly but we all hold you close in out hearts and in our minds. locking away precious memories we'll treasure forever.