Gabi is a 70 something year old woman who works part time at the church offices here in Frankfurt. She was a little girl of about 5 years old when she lived here during the second world war. She helps all the missionaries go down to the government offices to register for our residency permits and our drivers licenses. She has been a great help to all of us here and we all love her. One afternoon she caught me and said she would like to have us over to her home for dessert and a walk thru the forest. The Johnson's came also. We had a fantastic afternoon. She told us about the war, what she remembers of it. She was 5 years old when a bomb raid went off, they hurried out of her apartment into the shelter (keller) with her older brother (7) and her mother. The woman who lived upstairs and her son, did not get out in time and were killed. She remembers having the bombs hit and the noise, it was so loud. Pieces of the explosion hit her in the head and she had us feel the hole in her skull which was about 2 inches long. She said, this was just life for her, she didn't know any different.
As we spoke and told stories, she told us about her husband and how he joined the church and became quite a leader in the area. He died of cancer 20 years ago when Gabi was in her 50's. He built this home she lived in. It was charming.
This is a picture of us on her back porch....it was a bit chilly but we wanted to be outside. She told us about how they worked on building this home together and the pride her husband took in building it.
None of the homes in Germany have screens. They don't need them because there are very few bugs here. This picture was taken from Gabi's bedroom of me, Gabi and Kay Johnson.
This is our walk thru Gabi's neighborhood to the beginning of the trail thru the forest. This is basically what a neighborhood looks like in Germany.
We stopped on the trail and this is where Gabi told us about the War and her experience as a young child.
The forest was so beautiful so I ran ahead to get this picture....it's just beautiful here and I will miss all the beautiful scenery so much. Walking thru Gabi's neighborhood, you would never know there was this beautiful forest just behind all the houses. We walked up a street and suddenly Gabi yelled up to me to turn left and 5 steps later, I was walking thru a forest!
Gabi speaks English but is much more comfortable speaking German so she and Tony had a great talk during our walk.
Kay Johnson, Gary Johnson, Gabi and Tony
It's so hard to even believe that the smog is so bad in Germany. This is the Month of October and we stopped as we walked thru the forest to see the view and this is what we saw. The smog would surprise you - it goes all the way thru Bavaria and Austria and Switzerland. The best time to travel is after a rain fall, which is often but it does not take long before it looks like this again.
Here we are in Gabi's little dining room area. She served us Apfel Strudle which in some homes is the main course!
She set such a lovely little table using her Spode China from England.
Gabi started show us pictures of when she was young. Tony took a look at this one and couldn't believe it was Gabi and not me....front row with the dark jacket .....
We will always remember Gabi and her kindness to us
Someone built a tower and we climbed to the top to see the view and all we could see was the smog
The end of a wonderful afternoon - thank you Gabi!
These pictures below were taken on a walk we took thru the Frankfurt cemetery. We will miss this place. It is just so beautifully kept and untouched.
Fall is such a beautiful time of year and it's getting closer to our time to leave and go home. We are excited to be home with all the comforts and love of family.
