A Tribute to My Aunt, Marie Lowrey, A Survivor – Part 2
Whenever you think you can’t, think again, and remember this story. We lost Auntie on February 3, 2015.
Read here for the first part of the story.
The little old man was literally a life-saver. He indicated which train they should take, and he told them to hide in a restroom overnight and stand on the stools, locking the door behind them. The German soldiers regularly made sweeps of the station each night, including the bathrooms but weren’t ambitious enough to open each stall. They just looked for feet and then hauled out the person for questioning.
The large platform was empty in just a few minutes when they looked up again. The man was gone!
Marie and her friend spent another sleepless night in the bathroom and were holding their breath when the soldiers came through, but they made it!
They boarded the correct train and eventually arrived at an interior integration staging area where they were granted West German residency.
Shortly, thereafter, as Auntie was walking through the stree, a girl named Erna, who would become a lifelong friend, called to Auntie from an upstairs window….”Hello, do you need a friend?”.
Oh, yes, she did indeed, and through Erna and her family, she was able to stay with them until she found work and lodging with a family doing recordkeeping and scheduling plus housekeeping for the family. By including Marie in their family activities and travel, Marie was exposed to a broader German culture or arts and music plus seeing parts of Germany and other countries of which she had had no knowledge.
Anxious to see her sister, Anni, who had married an American GI, Marie was able to travel to the United States and took temporary work as a cook and housekeeper at a nursing home in Spring Park, MN. There she met her future husband who was staying there not as a resident but in exchange for some work as well.
They married and moved to Navarre, Minnesota, eventually living in a trailer home there until some friends assisted them in the building of their own home.
Because they built in stages, no bank would lend them such a small amount of money. A benefactor came forward and offered them fair terms on a mortgage. They promised to never eat out until that mortgage was paid, and they kept that promise, too.
Aunt Marie, and her husband, Uncle Bob, were great people to have in my life. Bob is still with us, but I know that being married to Marie for just two months shy of 60 years will make her loss that much more difficult. They raised five children together. Those children are accomplished and wonderful. And, now there are 10 grandchildren, too.
What a legacy! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a legacy like that to leave behind.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I wanted to share it with all of you, too
Best, Ron
Comments(27)