Meeting Connie
Extract from the Diary
by Elisabeth Ullmann
We arrive at the railway station in Brandenburg. A young man is waiting for us with an SOS sign in his hand. Pascal tells us he is doing his community service in the SOS Children's Village. I have to laugh to myself about all his piercings. I think of all the places we have been met by people in suits and ties and how we often felt underdressed. This is Europe.
The next day: Conny shows us her house. All the family houses have been built the same, but every SOS mother has chosen the furniture herself. Sunlight streams in through the windows and the houses all have a large living/dining area with an open-plan kitchen, which leads directly to the garden. The garden is very important to Conny. She has used bushes to separate it from the other gardens without cutting it off. A traditional lunch of potato soup and sausages is served at midday. Ms Schmidt, who is the second educator in the house at the moment, has lunch with us. Slowly the children start to make contact with us. They give us a present of sweets for our dessert and start sitting on our laps.
Fabian comes home from school dressed as a pumpkin. Conny tells us that she got up half an hour earlier than usual, at 5.30 a.m., in order to dress Fabian up for the school's autumn festival. She was also still making a hat for him at 11 p.m. the evening before, when we got back from dinner. He looks so sweet.
Conny takes us on a journey of discovery through her hometown of Brandenburg. We go to the flat where she grew up. On a council estate with a playground, where a concrete elephant stands that has been there for years. Conny tells us about her childhood with warmth and enthusiasm. We continue past prefabricated buildings from the GDR times. Then, these flats had been in great demand, but now this area is the city's social-melting pot, and youth crime and unemployment are high here.
We come to the road where Conny had her first flat. The mixture of empty houses next to ones that have been beautifully renovated creates a crass contrast. The state expropriated properties during the GDR days, and since the reunification it still has not been possible to clear up the question of ownership. This is why so many of the houses are empty.
What I have seen of the town I find agreeable, pleasant and tranquil. There are no huge billboards, no flashing advertising lights. Everything is still a bit quieter and a bit slower. I wonder what it will be like in ten years’ time.
Connie's Story:
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All these mother's stories come from SOS Children's Village Hermann Gmeiner Academy. Copyright is reserved and no unauthorized use permitted. Use for non-commercial purposes may be requested. The interviews telling about the lives of some SOS Mothers form part of an interesting study on being a replacement Mother to children in need in SOS Children's communities worldwide.