Michael Part 2

So far away in America, all I could do for my baby brother was pray. When Michael would have been twenty-six, I had my fifth baby, and had a chance to return to Germany to visit my family. I took little Liesel with me and had a great time visiting with my sisters and my mother.

“Where is Michael?” I asked Mutti one morning, as I stayed at her apartment in Stuttgart.

“I don’t really know. He was so hard to handle. Already when he was sixteen , he sold whatever he could for drugs, including presents he got for his birthday or the Holidays. He never had a job, wouldn’t finish school, and had all these funny friends. I knew he was on drugs then, but what could I do? I cried, and in the end I had to leave him, or he would have brought me to my grave.”

I shrugged inwardly and swore I’d never lose contact with any of my children.

I spent a few days with Carmen and asked her about Michael. “We think he might have died,” she said, tears standing in her eyes. “No one in the family has seen him for many years. We don’t know where he is and what has become of him. But the way he was into hard drugs, it’s possible he’s not alive anymore.”

When I asked Eva, who by now had become a successful photographer in Cologne, she told me that about seven years ago Michael had stayed with her for a little while, but then he had disappeared again.

Franz, my other brother had also remained in the carnival business. I visited him one one of the fair grounds where he was running his Ferris Wheel and other attractions. We got to talking about Michael and Franz said, “I tried to make a man out of Michael, but he was hopeless. He wouldn’t work, and disappeared after staying with me for just a few days. I’ve heard a rumor he’s dead. Too bad. Our father had so much hope for him.”

 The Ferris Wheel owned by my brother Franz

My three weeks in Germany were up and I had to return to the States and my children at home. 

The Internet was a brand new idea by now, and between having my last, sixth, child and going to school full-time, I searched the cyber world for Michael. I found absolutely nothing, and I heard nothing more about him, until many years later.