she composed herself and spoke. “Okay. But it’s getting late now. Why don’t we talk about that when you come tomorrow.”
        He wondered if he’d said something out of line. Was it inappropriate to delve into someone’s private life?  But of course, it wasn’t. This was his aunt. This was his family too. There was nothing malicious in this enquiry. Now, sitting across from her on this sunny morning, he waited eagerly to hear about this forgotten relative.

#

        “My mother was born in a city called Horka in East Germany. It was a very simple country town. I went there when I was studying in Germany in the early sixties. The house her family lived in was very austere, especially by our standards today. It was a two-story building, and my mother’s family lived in two rooms on the second floor. Generally, houses there always had outdoor plumbing but it was a great source of pride to her family that they actually had a sink with running water in their room.”
        Michael noticed her tone was rather formal, almost impersonal, more reminiscent of a lecture at the university than a conversation between an aunt and her nephew.
        “The town was very small and rural. In those days, they grew most of their own fruit and vegetables, and somebody always had livestock they would slaughter for meat. Horka grew a lot of beets, for some reason. They would sell them at the market, or trade for other items they didn’t grow. But according to my mother, they always had plenty of beets. And in that area there was a lot of coal mining. A lot of the men in Horka were miners. Do you remember that little carved wooden figure on the desk in my bedroom? That’s from Horka. It’s an example of one of the miners in their typical attire. Did you notice the way the coat extends way down in the back over the rear end? Look at it carefully tonight. The uniforms were designed that way so the miners could slide down into the mines on that flap.”
        Michael remembered the carved figure, so carefully sculpted and neatly painted. He would examine it later.
        “Now my father, as you know, had come to the United States around 1914 with his brother Emil, your grandfather. He had been a cabinetmaker in Germany.  Then when he came to the United States, he was able to get work as a carpenter. He and Emil were living in Wisconsin where a lot of Germans had settled.
        “Dad was working for this carpenter who built houses and I guess they hit it off pretty well. At one point my father asked this guy if he’d allow him to keep one of the houses they were building if he went without pay during that time. I think they were building ten houses in this particular neighborhood. So my dad ended up with a house, and that was how he