My mother in law shook Hitler's hand. That’s a pretty boldsentence isn’t it? But in the mid 1930s when Hitler visited Gertrud’s hometown of Kiel in Germany, the girl scout troop was excited and proud to be introduced to him. So that’s an interesting tidbit in a long life, that has sadly ended.
If you knew Gerdrud you would agree that “formidable” is an appropriate word to describe her.. The dictionary description is “inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable”
She wasn’t impressively large and she didn’t really scare anybody, but she certainly was capable, powerful and occasionally intense, but also caring, funny, generous and kind.
She was known, as many good German woman are, as being a super hemmafru (housewife) and in the essence of that word, she was an immaculate cleaner, a superb cook and a dedicated gardener, canner and freezer of the garden’s bounty, , a master at knitting, she even wove rugs for awhile, fed the birds (only in the winter, they must learn to feed themselves in the summer!) and most importantly took care of her men, Villy Hans and Svend.
I asked her once, “what is you best cleaning tool” and she said “My fingernail.”
Her fate was to be born in Germany in 1925 and that led to many hardships including the loss of two brothers and her first husband (Hans’ father) A few years ago Svend organized a “Getrud’s childhood tour” and we went with her to Kiel, and saw where she was born and raised. The most memorable stop was to see the bunker, which is still there overgrown with weeds in places, but still standing as a big ugly reminder of a life where a young mother spent the nights with her little boy while the city was being bombed.. She was about twenty years old at the time.
After the war, Germany was occupied by soldiers from various countries, one of which was Denmark. So the fates decided to give Gertud a break when she went to a dance in Itzehoe, a small town in northern Germany. There she met that handsome young Dane, VIlly Hansen and life took a turn for the better. Not that there weren’t more hardships, life being life. But from then on she had a worthy partner to meet any challenge.
The family Hansen/Nitzsche moved from Denmark to Sweden in the mid fifties so seek a better life powered by Villy’s craft as master tile setter. They made a few moves, but I know from pictures and stories that Getrud made each home a place that was clean and cozy, and I’m positive the the food was great!
When Svend made the crazy decision to date a woman from America of all places, Gertrud and Villy immediately enrolled in English classes, since at that point they only knew three languages and English wasn’t one of them. When I eventually moved over to Sweden, my Swedish language teacher was the same woman that taught Gerdrud and Villy English. One of the first things she said to me was, “Do not learn English from your mother-in- law, she uses too many other languages in every sentence.” And everyone in America who was lucky enough to know Gertrud witnessed that, but it didn’t make the least difference. Gertrud could get her point across. I mean nien is nien right?
During her long and eventful life, Gertrud was blessed with two wonderful sons, two fabulous daughters-in-law,(right Hanne?) five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She loved her sisters and brothers and the extended German family in Kiel as well as the crazy Danes from southern Denmark who accepted her in into that special tribe.
A special time in all our lives was the frequent trans-Atlantic trips which brought the Swedes, Danes and American together, forming lifelong friendships among an incongruous group. The language barrier was a minor inconvenience. The Danes and Swedes speak great English and the Americans all know about 4 words (hello, good-bye, yes and Cheers! - OK, maybe not hello, goodbye and yes)
For that past few years, Alzheimer’s took the Gertrud we knew away… for the most part.
Still, there were flashes of the old Getrud. The best example was when a nurse who spotted Villy coming in said, “Here comes your handsome husband” she shot back, “you should she him naked” There’s not much to say after that!
In her imperfect English she always used the term daughter-in-love when referring to me and Hanne. Who would ever correct that mistake? My dear and formidable friend and mother-in love...
Ruhe in Frieden, hvil i fred vila i frid, rest in peace
