Today's very belated #grandma recordings painted a picture on how winters were like on a farm that lies 5 km away from the village. They would get sacks of groceries upfront, like coffee, flour, semolina and animal food, in order to reduce the need for grocery shopping. In the evenings, her parents would sit on one side of the tiled stove ("Kachelhofen"), while her grandma would sit on the other. Her dearly beloved uncle Wilhelm was somehow missing from the picture in her memory. He would make things like baskets and brooms during winter. And on Sundays, he would sleep on the long bench in the Stube with his arm hanging down on the floor. Sometimes, my grandma would carefully put his hand back on the bench. She was so fond of her uncle, who seemed to care a lot about her as well and took her with him while doing all kinds of tasks around the farm. In the morning, he would put on his skis and make a path for his small niece until above the neighbors, because she wouldn't have made it through the the high snow alone. In the recording, we were both sure, that he would have been an awesome father, if only he would have had the chance for it: Wilhelm died in December 1945, aged 42 years, as a Russian prisoner of war.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hercher-27

#Genealogy #WikiTree #Winter #WorldWar2 #WW2