More About Michael, Who Isn't a Baby Anymore!

Time passed. I received my degree, taught languages and ESL, and raised my children. When our youngest, Meagan, finished her first year at the university with good grades, the time had come for my husband and me to get back in contact with my family in Germany. I hadn’t seen them for over twenty years. And to look for Michael, I thought, but didn’t dare to say.

We packed up and moved, planning to stay for two years and keeping in close contact with our children through our computers and phones.

I’d already lived in Germany for one year and still had no idea how to find my baby brother. 

Carmen, Sonja, Josefa, 2009

I’d asked everybody about Michael. No one knew anything. Finally Carmen said that our other brother, Franz’s,  ex-wife Solveig may have seen him before he died. Even though divorced from our brother, Solveig had remained friends with the family.

When I met Solveig some weeks later, I asked her about Michael.

“I haven't seen him for over thirty years. I think he’s dead,” she said. “But wait a minute. My son told me a long time ago that he met his uncle Michael in Giessen. He was just walking along the street, meeting a friend, when Michael came up to him. But that was at least ten years ago.”

“Really?” I said, getting hopeful. “Do you think Michael might still live in Giessen?”

Giessen was a city neighboring Wetzlar, where Michael had grown up.

“I have no idea. But wait a minute. It wasn’t my son who saw him there. I think it was Franz himself. You ought to ask him.”

The conversation went on to other subjects, and I filed the information. I couldn’t wait to talk to Franz about our youngest brother.