Fall and Winter

When the summer was over, we went home. Christoph and Mila had started school already. They had started to learn early and made good progress. However, brother Bernhard did not do as well. He had already trouble in the elementary school, and later went to the district school. But there he did not do much better. He just did not have a desire to learn. Well, what do you want to do? was the question. To become a white collar he did not have enough schooling. Therefore, his choice was to learn a craft. He himself did not have a clue, he was a model of indecision. Finally, when his friend, Ludwig Schwerin, decided to become a carpenter, he also decided on an apprenticeship as carpenter. Both started apprenticing to master Zinserling who had a good reputation.

After this summer came a beautiful fall. The garden did its best with vegetable and beautiful fruit. Relaxing in the evening, we sat in the family swing under the big birchtree. We chatted with our neighbors who also wanted to relax. In our old house lived a musician Hubner, who was born in Saxony. He had a wife and three children. The two little girls, Lenchen and Claerchen, were beautiful like pictures. The youngest, a little boy named David, had been born in our house and was now three years old. He was funny and smart and always ready to tease someone. Since the Hubners were strangers around here, they were very attached to us and they were always very nice and friendly. One day we all sat in the family swing, and swung so hard that the swing was groaning. Suddenly David said: “Don’t you hear how Otzen is bumping?” – Otzen was the name he had given to me. Everybody laughed at my expense and the little comic of course laughed the loudest. This joke was remembered for a long time.

Winter came and was very quiet. However at the beginning of spring 1855 rumor spread that Cholera had arrived. It had been brought in from the east, and there were already a lot of cases and many deaths. Now came the order from the authorities, how the inhabitants were supposed to act: they should not eat too much and avoid certain foods altogether, like fresh vegetable and several kinds of fish. Father and mother sat together and looked for pieces of copper. Some people put wholes into copper pieces, put a string through the hole, and wore them as a talisman against the Cholera. Belief sometimes is does wonders.

Unfortunately, the governor gave a ball and the band in which our neighbor Hubner, a good flautist, was ordered to play. They played through the night, were tired and hungry, and around morning they were served some of the leftovers of the great dinner that had been prepared for the great guests. Among the food were fresh vegetables, green peas with salmon, etc. Hubner came home around 5 in the morning and felt sick. After a few hours, Mrs. Hubner came running to us and asked whether anyone could help, her husband had convulsions. The parents did not hesitate a moment and helped as they could. They called a doctor. He diagnosed Cholera, prescribed something and disappeared rather quickly. The parents remained with the sick man and the despairing woman. The convulsions became worse and worse, and around 11 in the morning our good Mr. Hubner died. What a misfortune in our house! The funeral had to be very soon, already on the next day. Mr. Schmidt, the director of the band, came and organized everything. We all went. It was a pity, to see the poor wife with her children kneeling at the grave. Then later the question was, what should they do. The woman was without means. She should go back to her home in Saxony. Mr. Schmidt, the director, collected money from the other band members to get her the necessary money to travel home by ship. We said good bye to each other and father accompanied her to the ship. Mrs. Hubner wrote to us once, and then we did not hear from her again.

Luckily, nobody else in our house got the Cholera. Our parents, who never thought of themselves, but remained through all the trouble, should have gotten a Medal of Honor. They probably never thought a thing about it. It was simply a matter of charity to never leave anyone alone who needed help. They lived only for their children and worked hard to give them a better education so that they would have it easier in their life and could advance farther than they had.

They also had an open heart for all the relatives, and were always ready to help. They took especially good care of the children of the older brother of our mother, Reinhold Eeck, who had died early. The hope of the old grandfather Eeck, that this son would become something great was not fulfilled. He always was somewhat sickly, and only became manager of one of the smaller estates. His wife, who was left without means to raise their three children, became a cook on one of the estates. She brought her daughter Wilhelmine, later Mrs. Schlotzer, to Riga, to go to school, so that she would get a few years of regular schooling. Of course, she stayed with us for free. Later, her youngest brother Rudolph also went to school in Riga, and of course was welcomed in our house without ever showing the slightest hint of gratefulness.

In general, people just came and went in our house. For us children it was kind of fun to always have visitors and see new faces, but for mother it must have been difficult to always have to accommodate and feed guests. Especially family Ibenoff, relatives of the old step-grandmother, came often to enjoy Riga and of course always stayed with us. They too were always welcomed. But they were told you have to stick to the house rules. Everything is on time, and at 1 o’clock is dinner. Later on there would not be anything. Mrs. Solmann was the oldest of the married daughters from the family Ibenoff. She was smart and wise and could talk like a book, just not act correctly. She would often came home around 4 in the afternoon, since there had been such beautiful music in the park and so much to see, that she just had remained there. And usually she said, “Dear Christine don’t you have something yummy to eat?” And the dear Christine had to get up from her nap and fix a hamburger or something like that for Mrs. Solmannn.

Mother’s only sister, Frederike Clementine, came only very seldom. She lived farther away near Wolmar, where she had married an older widower, named Linde, and had a small estate in the area. He had a large family. Besides the smaller children, he had several grown daughters, who respected and loved their stepmother. The only daughter that Tante Frederike Linde had was Mrs. Emma Nelson who in the early 1920’es still lived in Riga.