1940
One day, I complained to my mother that I had no idea how to find a boyfriend.
“Don’t worry, darling,” she said. “One day, he’ll just knock on your door.”
Yeah, right, I thought and grimaced.
Seeing the doubt on my face, she decided to tell me how she met my father.
“It was the spring of 1939 in Berlin. I was sharing an apartment with my girlfriend Toni, who was studying textile design at university, and Ellen, a classmate of mine from fashion design school.That particular Saturday, it had poured with rain—typical April weather. On our way home, the three of us had been soaked to the bone. Now, a clothesline stretched across our living room, draped in a messy gallery of panties, bras, shirts, stockings, and dresses.Toni had just walked in and was in the bathroom washing her soiled clothes when the downstairs doorbell rang. I buzzed them in and listened to the heavy footsteps of two men climbing the stairs. It was eleven o’clock at night. Who on earth could that be at this hour? I wondered, checking to make sure the door’s safety chain was firmly in place. When they knocked on our door, I poked my head out, my hair wrapped in a towel after drying it. Standing there were two handsome young men—one in a trench coat and hat, the other in a leather jacket, both with their trousers drenched up to the knees. Small puddles were slowly forming around the tips of their closed umbrellas.
‘Does Miss Schneider live here?’ asked the tall blond one. ‘No, I’m sorry,’ I replied, preparing to shut the door. But then I noticed indignated that he had wedged his foot in the frame. ‘Could you please move your foot?’
‘Just a moment,’ said the one in the leather jacket. ‘I don’t understand. We just saw her come into this building, and she must have come up here, since this is the only apartment in the whole house with the lights on.’
‘That was my friend Lili Müller. Now please let me close the door and be on your way.’
‘What a shame. Our apologies, we must have made a mistake. We wanted to invite her and her friend out dancing. Would you ladies care to join us at the ballroom instead?’
‘No. It’s late, and the weather is terrible.’
The one in the leather jacket smiled at me.
‘How about tomorrow?’ He was handsome, I thought to myself. Why not? I caught sight of Lili peeking out from the bathroom door.
‘Lili, come here! These two guys are inviting us out dancing tomorrow. Do you feel like going?’
Lili looked at me, and I could see in her eyes that she loved the idea. And so, we made plans to go out the following evening with Koni and Fitz. Who would have guessed that a simple case of mistaken identity would end in two marriages, separated only by God many decades later?
And eleven years after that night… you were born.”
