Josefa

Josefa at fifteen, and our Mutti

Until she was eighteen, Josefa worked at Atwoods architectural company during the week and with our Vati on weekends. Then she moved to Switzerland to be a nanny, after that to England, also as a nanny, and then to Paris, where she studied French. 

Before taking her interpreter exam, however, she returned to Germany, where she started attending classes for preparation to attend a university. While there, she met and married Alfred and quit going to prep classes. She started traveling with Vati again on the weekends, to make money and help out. 

Alfred and Josefa were married five years when she met an older man, an engineer who had just designed and built Vait's latest merry-go-round. It must have been a whirlwind romance,  because shortly after they met, she packed up her stuff while Alfred was at the university, finishing his classes for the day. When he arrived he found an empty home and a good-bye letter from her.

As soon as her divorce from Alfred was final, Josefa married Dieter  and helped him raise a son and a daughter from a first marriage. The daughter died shortly after, and Dieter and Josefa decided they wanted a child together. But that never happened. 

Years later, when Josefa was forty and had been married to Dieter almost twenty years, she thought she had started menopause. She went to the doctor, who shook his head, then grinned at her. 

"You're not in menopause," he told her. "You're expecting."

Josefa's lifelong wish came true when she was forty-one, and she became a mother to Theo, a very sweet young man now.

Josefa today

However, after the birth of the baby, Josefa's second marriage, also, deteriorated. They are still married now, but live separate lives in their big house in Bruchsal. Josefa does not want to change things, but when she visits any of her siblings, all she does is complain about her husband.

Josefa's son Theo at fifteeen