Debbie features pictures of the Berlin Wall in today’s Six Word Saturday so I thought I’ll post something personal today.  My side of the family had no relatives in East Germany but my mother-in-law’s family had to flee from the area around Kaliningrad after the war.  She was the second youngest of 14 siblings (the older brothers had all died in the war) and the remaining brothers and sisters were distributed in various parts of Germany.  She, at only 16, and two of her sisters ended up in the Rhineland Palatium, close to the French border in the west, some were settled further north and three lived in the East, in Brandenburg, close to Berlin.

In 2014 we received an invitation to one of the East German cousin’s 60th birthday and decided to go and meet this part of the family.  Up to this point, I don’t think my husband had missed anything.  Just a few distant relatives one barely thought or spoke about.  He had met one or two for a few hours at a couple of funerals, that was all.  So we crossed the border that had ceased being a physical border 25 years ago and we met his cousins and their spouses and children and grandchildren.  He realised that he had things in common with these cousins he never knew.  A lot of what-ifs were raised during this holiday.

In the photo my husband is shown around the small holding by his cousin who still weekend farms this piece of land.

For Six Word Saturday.