|
Herta was born on the eighth of October 1921 the first and only daughter of German mother Johanna and Polish father Reinhold Pinkowski. Reinhold and Lidia met at a farm where Reinhold was working as a prisoner of war. Johanna fell in love with Reinhold because of the kind way he handled the horses.
Herta grew up on the family farm on the outskirts of Zehden Germany along with her younger brother Kurt. As a child Herta learnt many of the then rural skills at an early age such as collecting eggs, bottling cherries, cooking and baking. She also learnt to crochet and knit a passion she continued with for the rest of her life. The farmhouse had an extensive kitchen garden which she helped tend. The garden was famous in the village for the quality of strawberries. Herta would take baskets of these strawberries and sell them around the village. Early in WW2 Herta trained as a nurse. Unfortunately, Herta’s later years on the farm were tinged with sadness when her mother took her own life at the beginning of WW2 after a long spell of mental illness including time in an institution. As the war moved on her father Reinhold refused to sign the papers to allow Kurt to join the Hitler youth. As a result he was shortly thereafter conscripted into Hitler's Army and immediately posted to the front line where he was killed. We never found out exactly where he fell or where his body is. Zehden is now known as Cedynia and lies not far from the river Oder. In the last weeks of World War II, in March 1945, the town was conquered by joint Soviet and Polish forces during the Vistula–Oder offensive. Herta and her father became refugees as they fled the soviet and polish onslaught. Herta often told the Story how she fled to Berlin carrying only the clothes they were wearing and strings of sausages round their neck. At one point while crossing open country they had to dive into a ditch to avoid being shot at by fights planes. This experience had a lifelong effect on Herta, she was always upset when the plight of refugees where shown on the television. Herta loved dancing, and there were afternoon tea dances at the Heiderschloss in Berlin. It was at one of those dances that she met Syd. The place was full and all tables taken, Herta sat on her own and was asked if she minded if 2 soldiers sat with her. Syd and his mate Jimmy sat down, Syd asked her to dance and the rest is history…. 3 or 4 months later Syd was sent back to the UK and de-mobbed. That was in 1947. Around 6 months or so later, Syd sent all the paperwork from Hull for Herta to use, and sort the paperwork out in Germany, so that she could come to England to get married! He’d never asked her if she wanted to! Herta arrived in Hull in February 1948. On 20th March 1948 Herta and Syd were married in St Pauls, Sculcoates and later the same year they had a daughter, named after her maternal grandmother - Joanna. Unfortunately she died within a few days. They had to wait 9 years before Chris came along. In 1961 Herta, Syd and Chris took their first trip abroad, staying with Herta’s family in Bielefeld, West Germany. This was so that Herta could arrange to bring her elderly father back to the UK to live with them. After Chris started school Herta resumed working as a silver service waitress in Hammonds, and then in 1970 tragedy struck again with the death of Sydney, after a 3 year battle with cancer, closely followed, just a year later, by the death of her father. Never one to give up on a challenge, Herta continued to work and brought up Chris as a single parent, ensuring he was well fed, clothed and wanted for nothing. Every afternoon, after she had finished work, she would bring home, buns, or cake etc. A favourite was Kunzle cakes! Herta did have a sweet tooth! In 1981 Herta retired, but hated sitting still. She threw herself into her other great love - gardening. She made many friends down Redbourne Street as they would stop to admire her front garden (the back was just as spectacular!) She also carried on knitting many colourful jumpers for both Chris and herself. 4 years later she started knitting for Sue and her grandchildren, Kyra and Patrick. There was around 100 knitted jumpers etc in her house! She also baked cakes for the church coffee sessions. s. At around 73 Herta went camping with Chris, Sue and the family for the first time. This was the first of a number of camping trips, to the Yorkshire Dales, Cornwall, and Derbyshire. She said she slept better in a tent! She really took to camping! When Patrick was about 4 the family visited Greece and actually got Herta in a swimming pool for the first time! She was a young 75! Other holidays included Barcelona and the Pyrenees, and there was an early snowfall. As the family were snowed in, along with others in the area, there was a multi-national snowball fight which she excelled at too! Herta also went on narrow boat holidays with her family, and enjoyed those as well. In closing, Herta lived a very full life, experiencing many changing times, spanning 103 years and seeing her granddaughter Kyra marry Adrian, and then cuddled both of her great-granddaughters, Aurelia and Soraya. However, she never managed to meet her granddaughter in law, Sam, as they live in Scotland. That’s a long life well lived. |
|---|