OK well the last month has been pretty horrid and I have had no time to sit down or do Christmassy things. With the death of dear Erika the last link with my mum has gone. Nobody left now to remember me as a child or to talk to about my mother. I find that rather hard. As executor of her will I have been plunged immediately into organising mode and boy, was there a lot to do. From the collection of the medical certificate to registering the death to dealing with funeral directors etc etc it has been non-stop.
Turn out for Erika was wonderful and we all went back to her house afterwards for tea, cake, wine and nibbles and had a most enjoyable time laughing and joking and remembering her. It was the kind of occasion she would have loved. I have now locked up the house and will be doing nothing until the New Year when it has to be cleared. Not a job I am looking forward to, brings back memories of doing it for my mum when my sister and I ended up becoming the favourite visitors of the local charity shop.
Erika was a German lady who married a British soldier and came to this country at the end of the war. She actually worked for the German railways and organised travel for the High Command. I gather that in the village where she lived for forty years they called her, affectionately I hasten to add 'Hitler's travel Agent'! I would say that she loathed the Nazis, like the majority of Germans, but they had to toe the line. There was a guy in the office they all disliked and they knew he was the 'snitch' put there to listen to what they said or did. Anything out of order and they were in trouble.
She once told me that at Christmas time all the girls in the office were given gifts, usually food which was most welcome, and Goering was very popular as he gave them a goose and a whole salami. Hitler was not so popular as all he gave them was a small packet of coffee……
Tales like this from Erika and her description of walking through Dresden while it was being bombed and her adventures in the Ukraine were nothing but living history. A great lady.
I shall be back after Christmas with a catch up and my books of the year. Until then I wish you all a very Happy Christmas.
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