50 Years and 6 days ago , a wall was built to separate Eastern Germany from Western Germany.
My mother, father and myself were on the Western side of it and my sister, my grandmother, my grandfather and all the other, aunts and uncles, cousins and great grandparents were on the other side.
The Other side, where they stayed under Russian occupation ,as the most western outpost of the Warsaw Pact during the times of the Cold War.
Atomic weapons were lined up on both sides to fire , should either the West or the East feel threatened in any which way.
Everybody knew, that this wall was coming, and my parents had taken steps to provide a safe escape for my sister Beate, via a fake appendectomy in a hospital in Koblenz, on the right side of the wall. Alas , my sister, being 14 years of age , decided against it and stayed in the Eastern Zone.
On August the 13, 1961, our family lost itself.
My mother was forever feeling guilty for having created a situation, where her daughter was separated from us , my father had to work extra hard to provide for the rest of the family in the East and I was plainly a reminder of what they could not have.
One room in our basement was dedicated to parcels for the other side, vacations were dedicated to visiting the relatives in Grieben. During those visits I was put aside , and again collected after the allotted 28 days were over.
Beate was number 1 in my mothers life, even after she got married and did not invite my parents.
The resulting child Susann never missed anything . Everything possible was shipped to the precious grandchild. Beates every wish was always full filled.
I looked on and rebelled in many ways . I smoked , did not do my home work and hoped that for some weird reason , perhaps I did not belong to this family.
The catering to the poor underprivileged Zoners continued and my niece even fled from East Germany and moved in with my parents. They provided cars , trips , housing for a boy friend who also had fled.
In the meantime , I had left to life in Canada.
The wall came down, I was stunned. I thought all is getting better now. We'll have a family now , who can stick together. Alas, it was the wall that kept us together and the broken wall cut like chards the remaining connections.
I also continued to cater to the Griebeners, Beate and company. The wall did not even exist any more and still , we were made to feel responsible for any kind of short comings they experienced.
Family get togethers got more and more stressful for my parents , who clearly felt now, that they were taken advantage off.
Thankless behaviour became the norm and mom and dad realized that there would be no loving Beate to look after them in their old age.
Not even Susann , the grandchild, who lived in the same town as my parents , felt the need to help out occasionally , when old age made day to day living a little harder for my parents.
After a life of pampering with gifts , parcels , money and cars , the ex Zoners , my other part of the family , could not be bothered to be of assistance to our aging parents , who dedicated their life to them.
Beate made it to moms funeral , but did not even show up for dad's memorial 2 years later
The politicians , who built this wall for what ever political reasons , never ever consider the individuals , us, and we bore the brunt of those decisions.
A life of suffering and guilt for my mom, a sad life for me and a father who was never home to be with us , but was away to work day and night on a boat to make the money to support the Griebeners.
When the wall came down, it was much to late for our family to ever undo the damage which had been done.
