Growing up, I'd go visit tante Sara every Wednesday after school. I would call her Tuesday night and ask her if I could come over the next day, and of course the answer was always "Ja!".
Tante Sara would make me a snack right when I got there on Wednesday afternoon. Most days is was "reis mit milch" (rice with milk). I know, it sounds weird, but its soo good! I still eat it to this day. After that, I would play or color while she cooked dinner. I played with my special Barbies that she had at her house. She sewed and knitted special clothes for them too. I would color with my special box of crayons (that I actually still have:). Dinner was usually the same. Mashed potatoes (my fave), scrambled eggs, and some sort of vegetable. I got super excited on days when she made lima beans. I'm weird, I know. As I got older though, tante Sara would let me fry my own eggs. So when it was almost time to eat she would call me into the kitchen to cook our eggs. The smell of melting butter on a frying pan still brings back memories of her place. Then after dinner I would help her clean up. Then she would make me do my homework, and then we played. We played lots of different things. We had special puzzles that we put together. I still remember one was a picture of baby chicks sitting on colorful easter eggs. The other one was a Mickey Mouse puzzle with "The Queen of Hearts" poem written on it. I can still recite that poem, if you want me to. :)
Another thing we would do was play hide and seek. I was super good at hiding because I was little enough to fit anywhere. She wouldn't allow me to hide under her bed though because she was afraid it would fall on me. Haha! Sometimes I still hid under there to throw her off. Tante Sara wasn't a very good hider. She usually only hid behind doors. It was pretty obvious when she was standing behind a door, because I could see her through the crack, and because that was her only hiding spot. I usually pretended that I didn't know where she was, because I felt sorry for her bad hiding skills. One time though, I really couldn't find her. I was so confused. She wasn't behind any of the doors. It took me forever to find her. Finally I found her hidden inside her closet. "Genius!", I thought. I couldn't stop laughing after she came out of there. It was so unlike her to actually have a good spot to hide!
Sometimes we would go for a walk through her apartment. We would take the elevator all the way to the top floor, 6H. We would walk a circle around the top floor, then take the stairs down to the next one and do the same thing all the way to the main floor. I loved going for walks. I remember smelling all different kinds of food that people were preparing in their own apartment. Even though I'd already eaten dinner, it made me hungry all over again.
Sometimes we'd go to the game room on the main floor and visit the other old people putting puzzles together. Tante Sara would brag to them about me. She thought the world of me. She called me her little sister. She always made me recite my special poem to them:
Hab Sonne im Herzen
obs stuermt oder schneit.
Ob der Himmel voll Wolken,
die Erde voll streit.
Vertraue auf Gott,
verlier nie den Mut.
Hab Sonne im Herzen,
und alles wird gut.
I still have this poem hanging in my kitchen.
Another thing we would do is play games. We played "Mensch aerger dich nicht!", which is the german version of the game Sorry. Once again, I felt sorry for her, so if I had the chance to land my piece on hers and send it home, I wouldn't. I would pretend I didn't even see it and try something else.
Tante Sara also taught me how to sew, crochet, and knit. I believe that a lot of my creativity comes from her. We would sew little purses together, knit little pot holders, and make presents for my family.
Every once in a while I would spend the night with tante Sara. She would set up two beds on her living room floor on her bright red carpet. We would sleep next to each other there. Before bed she would read to me from the Bible. Tante Sara taught me a lot about Jesus. She taught me to love Jesus. She was such an amazing example to me of what kind of person I wanted to be. She was amazing.
So, those are just a few of the wonderful memories I have of my tante Sara. I'm not sure what the rules are about this, but I often ask God to say hi to her for me, and to tell her about my little Sara. She would be so in love with her, I just know it. I am forever grateful for my amazing great aunt, and she will never be forgotten. I hope that I can be a great woman of God like she was. I look forward to teaching my little Sara about all the things I learned from tante Sara. I also look forward to the day when I get to spend eternity with my Lord and Savior, and dance and sing with my tante Sara again.
So, tonight, like we do every year, we are celebrating tante Sara's birthday by making her special dinner: mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, and vegetables. And for dessert we always had ice cream bars.
Deine kleine Schwester,
Marcy
These are the sweetest memories of your great aunt! She must have been an incredible person to you. What a gift to give her name to your daughter.
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