06/10/2025
Today would have been the birthday of my great-grandmother Marie. She was born on October 6, 1870, into a pastor's family. The family was large, lively, and full of joy, as the stories go. She was the third child from her father's second marriage to the Baroness von der Burg. There were already three girls from the first marriage, and after her, seven more children would follow. For pastor's daughters, there were three options: marry a pastor, remain unmarried and become a governess, or, option three, work in the households of their siblings, the latter of course being unpaid. Marie chose option one but had to work as a governess in the time between her engagement and marriage until her fiancé had his own parish. So, she waited faithfully for five long years until it finally happened in 1898. By then, she was already 27, relatively old for that time. She had five children between 1899 and 1910. The life of a pastor's wife was tough because she was not just a homemaker and mother but also had extensive duties in the community. And she had a husband who was probably not very accessible. Her health deteriorated over time, and she was often too weak to even get out of bed. Her younger sister, Lydia, unmarried, often came to support her, and her older sons came over in their school breaks to carry her up and down the stairs. In 1920, at the age of 49, she passed away, probably from tuberculosis, like some of her siblings before her. Her sister Lydia came more often, and after marrying her sister's widower in 1924, she stayed, not an easy situation for her and the children having to address her as “mother”. Marie was buried in the Friedeberg cemetery in Neumark, today Strzelce Krajeńskie in Poland, but there is no longer a grave.
