Читать книгу The Women of Janowka - Helmut Exner - Страница 15

– Chapter 8 –

There are more things between Heaven and Earth... what things? Things that cannot be explained? Things that seem to come from the supernatural? Things that can only be regarded as incredible? Things that should not exist or happen according to the laws of natural sciences and logic? But, nevertheless, they are real. There are more things between Heaven and Earth is a saying which I‘ve often heard. Because in my family, these things have been occuring over and over again for generations.

In 1962, I was a nine-year-old child. One day, when I should actually have been at school, I was staying at home lying on the sofa for whatever reason – maybe, I was ill indeed or didn’t feel like going to school. I don’t know anymore. However, a car stopped in front of our house. My mother was looking out of the window to see who got out of the car and her face took on a trance-like expression. After long seconds had passed, she said quite slowly: “I think it’s Aunt Natalie.”

I think it’s Aunt Natalie. If she had said: “I think it’s the man from the moon”, it would have made no difference to me. To me, Aunt Natalie had always been some sort of myth, someone beyond reach. Born in Volhynia, she was the sister of my father and had been living in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) which, at that time, used to be called Eastern zone or the East. My parents had not seen her for more than twenty years. My mother had stricly forbidden my father to travel into the Eastern zone. It had been known that, in 1945/46, the Soviets had taken several people, who originally came from the Ukraine, back to the Soviet Union. Since then many hadn’t been heard of ever again. Apart from that, GDR citizens hadn’t been allowed to travel into the West. However, it truly had exceeded my wildest dreams to personally meet Aunt Natalie. To me, she was like a fairy tale figure, a dear aunt, who had been there once and then had been living at a place so distant as to be beyond reach. Now, this aunt had been allowed to travel into the West. Due to a serious illness, she had become a pensioner, although she had not reached retirement age yet and never would. Aunt Natalie was a small and thin little person of inconspicuous appearance but with a huge heart. She told the story of her mother Serafine:

On a hot, cloudless summer day in Volhynia, Ukraine, her parents experienced this phenomenon of thunder during glorious sunny weather and hearing the sound of music without any orchestra playing. Soon after, Serafine went to her house, packed a few things, harnessed the horse and picked up her mother, setting off for her sister who had let her know. After staying with some relatives for the night – everywhere in the area, there were people with whom they were related or were friends with – they finally reached the house of their brother-in-law and son-in-law. It was no surprise when, with sad faces, they were told that Justina had gone home at the very same time that the thunder had rolled and the music had played. In our family, one didn’t die, one went home.