Meet Lilo

This is our friend Lilo.  (Pronounced Lee-lou.)  She lives downstairs.  She's a sprightly 85 years old!  She and her husband built this house in the 70s.  She grew up in the area... but has lived all over the world!  Her hubs was an architect so they lived in South Africa, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Australia!  Her second daughter, Dianna (our official landlady) was born in Pakistan.  They built this house as a VACATION home!  (I'm getting the impression business was going *very* well for him.)  And then when he retired they moved here to stay. 

It's sad sometimes to hear her talk about it.  Her husband passed away over a decade ago... and her two daughters don't live near here.  They had always intended for the downstairs apartment to be where they lived while one of their daughters lived upstairs (in our apartment) and took care of them :o(  Things don't always work out the way you plan.  She always asks me how I like the view... her husband used to sit all night on the balcony and watch the sunsets over the city. 

She already brought up World War II to me!  I would never have mentioned it, for fear it'd be a touchy subject... but she brought it up in telling me about her home town Morlautern.  It's literally five minutes down the road, where Quentin and Tiffany live.  And during the war, her house was burned down in a bombing!  Half of the town was lost.  Her mother and brother were okay, though.  Her dad ended up a prisoner of war in Russia.  He didn't come home until three years after the war ended, and he was too sick to rebuild the house.  So Lilo and her husband rebuilt it for them.  Then they decided to build this house in Otterberg later. 

She used to have a huge garden.  But she hurt her hip a few years back and hasn't been able to since.  So when I told her I wanted to try my hand at a small one this year, she was so excited and helpful!  She took us to a garden center and translated for us... otherwise we would have been sunk!  Then she showed us all the tools she had that we could use to break up the ground and sort out the rocks.  (And by we I mean mostly Jesse on that part!)  She sat up in the yard with us for two hours while we worked!  She helped hold Sam and taught us German and gave us gardening tips. 

Lilo is so sweet and so generous and so cute and so German!  I'm basically adopting her as my German Grandma... Oma ;o)  She doens't really have a choice!