in the garden

Our father recounted that, while hidden in the Insane Asylum, he spent a fair amount of time taking care of the vegetable garden. He would, from time to time, rest on a nearby bench, at the edge of the lovely park. One day, despondent because money to pay for their keep was running out and fearing they would soon be expelled, he sat on his favorite bench when another "inmate" sat down next to him and attempted to start a conversation, in French. Realizing that father did not understand, she tried German and found a willing interlocutor who said he was Mr. Meschler from Luxemburg. She said she, herself, stemmed from Strasburg, in German-speaking Eastern France and, as fate would have it, knew the Grand'Duchy well as she oftentimes had visited her very closest friend there, a lady by the name of Tony Wolf. Father, before he could catch himself, said, "… but that's my sister!" To which she replied (to father's consternation), "If Tony Wolf is your sister, how can you be Mr. Meschler, as I was at her wedding and know for a fact that her maiden name was Moritz."

The misunderstanding was soon clarified. This lady, a woman of means, had the incredible generosity of paying for our parents' keep until the end of their stay, in the Fall of 1944.

After the war, our parents scrimped and saved enough so that, in due course, they were able to repay their generous benefactor.