The Frieda Story now has reached its end. Most of what has been told happened long ago, before or shortly after I was born. It has been a crowning experience to get to know all this in my late years.
But the story would not be complete without some closing remarks.
In 1957 my parents where sent to Berlin once more. This time Erik was to be Territorial Commander. The War had ended twelve years earlier, but Germany still had many visible scars. The rubble had not yet been cleared out and many buildings were still in ruins. Berlin was a split city. The Wall between the Eastern and Western Zones had not yet been erected (that happened in 1961) but the city was divided which was clearly noticed.
The Salvation Army's work in the Eastern Zone was difficult or forbidden. In the Western Zones the Army was regaining strength, but new premises had to be found and new buildings erected and financed. That was part of Dad's job.
My youngest sister Birgitta, born in 1945 and now 12 years old, was the only one of us children still at home. She attended a German school, and Dad found out that one of her classmates was a daughter of Gerdi (the daughter of the family that took care of me during my first years)!
| In the summer of 1958 my wife and I visited my parents
in Berlin. Of course Gerdi wanted to see me again, and so we met.
She looked much at me and smiled. Perhaps she saw in me a little brother that had been away for a very long time and just had come home. I must admit that I was not quite equal to the situation... |
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So I came to see it for myself, after all. I did not know about the inscription before, and I have already said that it made a deep impression on me. From pictures that I have seen later, there was no hedge in 1930, but now there was. Frieda's grave lay nearest this hedge.
While we stood there an old man came by. He stopped at the hedge and looked at us. Dad was in uniform.
| -- Sind Sie Herr Wickberg? (Are you Mr. Wickberg?), he asked.
-- Yes. -- Well I was the one that buried your wife in those days. A long time ago. And then we have had this war... He had quite a lot to say about the war and about the occupation troops, especially the Russians. -- Yes, he ended and looked at the grave. That is a very nice stone. When the stones are removed I try so keep the nicest ones and put them up over there -- he waved his arm -- by the wall. I have saved quite a lot of the Salvation Army stones. They seem to be the best. |
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Now another 40 years have past by. The prolonged time has elapsed and
the stone has most certainly been removed. But who knows? Perhaps it still
stands there "by the wall" and gives its testimony to those that pass of
the faith Frieda had helped Erik to find.
Written in March, 1999 Latest update: 99 04 21; revised setup 99 10 18