How names can change......
As you read my comments...maybe you wondered why my older brother's last name is Lemke and not Kolewe.My Mother, Erna ne Lenz is responsible for that.Her father died in 1925 when she was only 9years old and the farm had to be worked.A relative, Gustav Redschlag,had been invited to live with family and work on the farm as needed.As her father became sicker from a stomach ailment he was a lifesaver and a great help.So not long after his death Oma Lenz became Oma Redschlag and three kids joined the family.Now Mom became the great help to her mother whether she wanted to or not.At first she thought it was fun but as she became a teenager and wanted more free time she had a problem.She could not join her friends for church functions on weekends but her mother went for she was the automatic babysitter.Mom was a good student and wanted more free time to be with her friends and participate with the community around her.These also were the years she learned how to make the 16-pointed stars from one of her teachers.The star making she passed on to me which became one of my most cherished heritage. I call it now My
Memory Star and that is another story.
Mom had to escape that family confinement and found a young man among many possibilities my brother's father,August Lemke.My father ,August Kolewe, was around too but in different circles and a year older than the Lemke suitor.However,the big issue was land ,land and more land and my father did not have any so he was out.August Lemke was the sole survivor in his family and he did have land.Mom was to inherit her father's land at least half of it when she turned 21years of age.August Lemke was good looking and smart and he did pay attention to her.Oma and her new husband did not want to loose control of the land and a build in maid so the tension grew like a modern soap opera story.Mom was independent and strong willed.She was smart and good looking too and nothing is going to stand in her way to freedom.All sorts of people tried to put pressure on her claiming that the Lemke family was not healthy and that is why August Lemke was the sole survivor.There was some truth to that rumor.However the need to be independent and free and besides she was in love too won out. Erna and August got married in January of 1935 and my big brother,Artur ,was born as a late Christmas gift on December 28,1935.
The new couple was now the biggest farmer in the village and I don't think it involved 100 acres.
It was a happy and loving time...for a while and then a monster dragon raised it's ugly head just like in the last scene of The Hobbit Part 1.I have read the book by Thomas Mann,Zauberberg(Magic Mountain) and felt the struggle the characters went through and the pain and hopelessness as time slipped by.All those emotions from the book and Mother's recall of that period of her life when I did the dishes with her in the kitchen are forever imprinted.When doctors in Germany performed routine tests on me, it proved to be positive.The monster is in my lungs but trapped by a calcium wall.A fortunate situation for anything more would have cancelled my boat trip across the Atlantic to the Land of Promise for Uncle Sam wanted only healthy and sound persons.Now whenever I drive by the northeastern end of Lake Owassoo in Minnesota those emotions bubble up for the spot was the location of the TB sanitarium.
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