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\n“It was in
\nthis house, I remember very vividly now, that my parents adopted a little girl. She
\nwould be my second sister. But I think that I have to put this story into chronological order, so I
\nwill go back many years or maybe it\u2019s that I will go forward some years to the
\nday when my mother told me that she, herself, was adopted. <\/span>
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nthis house, I remember very vividly now, that my parents adopted a little girl. She
\nwould be my second sister. But I think that I have to put this story into chronological order, so I
\nwill go back many years or maybe it\u2019s that I will go forward some years to the
\nday when my mother told me that she, herself, was adopted. <\/span>
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nMy mother always knew that she was adopted. She told me that my
\ngrandmother had lost her only child, a son, Herman, to Scarlet Fever, when he was
\nseven. As a testament to this great tragedy, Herman\u2019s picture hung in my
\ngrandmother\u2019s house and then in my mother\u2019s house for many years. It was an oversized picture, in a very ornate frame, and it dominated my childhood. Herman is smiling sweetly over us in his short dark pants, with matching jacket, white knee socks and a very elegantly ruffled white shirt. He is a beautiful
\nchild. I would often think, “How could someone so precious have died?”<\/span><\/div>\n
\ngrandmother had lost her only child, a son, Herman, to Scarlet Fever, when he was
\nseven. As a testament to this great tragedy, Herman\u2019s picture hung in my
\ngrandmother\u2019s house and then in my mother\u2019s house for many years. It was an oversized picture, in a very ornate frame, and it dominated my childhood. Herman is smiling sweetly over us in his short dark pants, with matching jacket, white knee socks and a very elegantly ruffled white shirt. He is a beautiful
\nchild. I would often think, “How could someone so precious have died?”<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAfter
\nHerman’s death, my grandmother was given a chance to adopt a baby girl, whom she named Margareta Elfrida Lavinia. Margareta would be raised in a German-speaking home. Ironically, my mother’s birth mother, Eva, was English. Language differences aside, both my grandmother and my mother kept in touch with Eva, over the years. She and her sister Beth sometimes rented the
\ntwo upstairs, front rooms, of my grandmother’s house. They, like Herman, were always on the periphery of my childhood, shadows of some past event, which never quite ends. Eva, unfortunately, would never marry and have more children. However, she worked almost all of her life, as a receptionist, for the Children\u2019s Aid Society.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nHerman’s death, my grandmother was given a chance to adopt a baby girl, whom she named Margareta Elfrida Lavinia. Margareta would be raised in a German-speaking home. Ironically, my mother’s birth mother, Eva, was English. Language differences aside, both my grandmother and my mother kept in touch with Eva, over the years. She and her sister Beth sometimes rented the
\ntwo upstairs, front rooms, of my grandmother’s house. They, like Herman, were always on the periphery of my childhood, shadows of some past event, which never quite ends. Eva, unfortunately, would never marry and have more children. However, she worked almost all of her life, as a receptionist, for the Children\u2019s Aid Society.<\/span><\/div>\n
![](\"http:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Katherine1-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n