TRAUTCHEN

(Part 1)

THE EARLY YEARS.

I have wanted to write my story for a long time. My children often asked me to write down everything that had happened in my life. So I’m writing this for my children and grand children and great grand children and anyone who might be interested. I know that it will not be easy for me to write about my life as there are many things that I have tried to forget. Most of them were terrible times for me, and other memories were just to painful to recall, and to write them down would mean I would have to relive it all.

I was born at home on October 20^th 1936 in a village named Pottangow in Pommerania. Pommerania used to belong to Germany but after WWII it became Polish territory. Pottangow is now called Potegowo and Pommerania is now Pomorze. It is a beautiful fertile area of Germany. Some of the Aristocracy had their country mansions there: Some often came for holiday but others lived here permanently. Mutti (my mother) was a servant girl in one of these aristocratic mansions before she met my father(papa.)

Papa - Willi Schoenegge married my mother –Helene Barz in the beginning of 1936.

cont.later

David and I began married life in Melbourne. We had rented a small two storey charming little house in Malvern. It was close to where David could walk to the school where he taught , and Helene could walk with him to her school which was next to his.

Richard was born on the 9^th of May 1962. we were very happy and hoped that we have more children. We were happy when soon after Anna came along on June 9^th 1963, and in 1964 our twins Monika and Jennifer were born on May 15^th.

Our family had suddenly grown from three children to five in a short time. We were very busy but very happy, although we were hardly getting any sleep, as the babies had to be fed, changed and burped every two hours because they were so small. One on the bottle and the other on the breast alternately. They also had to be weight after each feed.