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by Carlos Mateo (Author)
Otto tells how it came about: "On my last trip to Europe, I had some things to do, I wanted to sell my house, the furniture and also my much loved car. It was a hard parting, 40 years we lived in this place and in this house and no other owners are using my things. They live in my house, which we saved from our mouths. I did most of the house building myself. We had no holidays, I worked on building the house every free minute. Then the children came, again no free minutes. At Christmas, we bought a little dog for the children, so we were happy. Little by little we were better off financially and bought a second-hand car on installments, even the television, in color of course, which was an expensive affair back then in the 60s, was bought on installments. It was a difficult time, but we stuck together, we only bought things cheaply, or better cheaply, and we saved money back and forth. Then the children started school, we lived in a village which had about 800 inhabitants at that time. Today, there are about 25,000 inhabitants, with banks, a supermarket, a shopping center, a cinema, a municipal swimming pool, and so on. We were not rich, but happy, and I think that was the most important thing. Later, the children left home, they started their families and the two of us were alone. But I wanted to tell my story, although the above is also part of my story. On my last visit, I was alone and the evenings are very long, so one longs for a beer or a glass of wine. Well, I went to a bar and since all the seats were taken, the waiter sat me at a table with a gentleman. We got acquainted, as we had been taught as children. His name was Carlos, and we got to talking, and I brought myself to tell my whole life story. Carlos asked me at the end of our conversation if he could write it down, he told me he was a writer and my narrative excited him." When Otto came into the world, in 1937, there was a wartime atmosphere in the country and World War 2 was coming. Well, he was still too young to know anything about it, his parents lived with him in a big Bavarian city. His father worked there as an engine designer. Otto was, I think, about 75 years old, we immediately liked each other and Otto began to talk. What I heard was a whole life with all its ups and downs. His fate was so interesting, I had never heard anything like it before. When I think back now, I heard a whole life that night. It was pure coincidence or was it fate that we met that night. We sat together all night, talking and talking. In my mind I asked myself, why is he telling me all this? At first, I thought he was just telling me a fairy tale, but then I realized that something was being told here that was true and Otto needed to get it all off his chest. This night with me was supposed to help Otto talk about his problems and find a way to lead a better life, even if he only had a short time until the end. Otto was a bit excited when he started talking, he was a so-called grown man. He started, which was strange, with his childhood and told me a whole period of at least 70 years. I admire Otto's memory, he told and told. When we both parted early in the morning, I felt a relief in Otto, he had processed all the rubbish, it was already a rubbish heap or better, a rubbish dump that Otto got off his chest. I kept putting off writing all this down, I had other things to do, but now I will write this story down because Otto's life is worth writing about. Here you are reading a true story, a story that life wrote.
