So, Abraham sat me on his lap and asked: ”Why do you cry, little Gertrud?” ”Don’t
have a grandpa anymore”, little Gertrud sobbed. ”Oh honey”, he said, ”just look, now
you’ve got me!” You never forget that.
Oh yes, Abraham was a very good man. I’ll tell you a very unique story. My sister
(*1914) was already born when WWI broke out, and my dad was a soldier in the
trenches for four years.
The spouses of these soldieres were not properly taken care of, actually it was rotten,
too little to live on but too much to die. Abraham learned about that and the amount of
benefit payments they would receive. One day he summoned my mother when she was
about to pay the rent, and he said to her: ”Tell me, Mrs. Eckert, is it true that you
receive about 60 marks a month, and of that you pay about 30 marks for rent?”
”That’s correct!” And Abraham went on: ”That’s outrageous, just can’t be that way.”
He sat there with that thinking look on his face, and then he said: ”You know what,
Mrs. Eckert, both your husband and my only son are at the front, and the two of us
will say special prayers for their safe return, I’ll pray for your husband and you for
my Joseph, and you won’t pay any rent anymore.”
Well, my mother would protest and say: ”That’s not the way it works, I can’t do that.”
Eventually they agreed on a ridiculously small amount. I believe he asked for three
marks, but my mother paid him five. It’s hard to find a man who does something like
that, isn’t it.
That’s the way my mother told it to me.