East German-born Ohio woman reunites with family
By
The Associated Press
12:10 PM Sunday, May 3, 2009
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/...printArticle=y
PAULDING, Ohio — Rosa Tempel's life has had all the plot twists and intrigue of a bestseller.
At first glance it doesn't appear so, however. She and her husband, Mahlon, live in an immaculate home on a quiet street in a small town.
That peaceful existence exploded in February with a single telephone call from Germany. Suddenly, many missing pieces of Rosa's life began to fit together. On the phone asking for "Roswitha" was a representative of a German television show that reunites families. Rosa had a sister who was trying to find her.
Roswitha was born in East Germany in 1950. Not long after, her father disappeared, leaving her mother, Lizabeth, to care for their children. Lizabeth tried several times unsuccessfully to escape into West Germany. In 1951, she was finally able to reach freedom with infant Roswitha by wading across a river into West Germany. During her flight, she was shot in the foot by border guards.
Why did Lizabeth leave her other children behind?
"I knew I had a sister and a brother back there, but my mother would never talk about it," Rosa says in her soft voice. "She said it was too painful."
Once her mother was halfway across the river, people from the west side were able to help her. Lizabeth found employment and eventually married an American serviceman stationed there.
Floyd Speiser adopted little Roswitha and was the only father she ever knew. While she was the youngest of her German family, she was the oldest child of Floyd and Lizabeth. In the meantime, her 5 1/2-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother went to an East German children's home. They remained close while growing up and never forgot about their baby sister.
Rosa does recall one visit with her mother's relatives from East Germany before moving to the United States.
"At that point, people could still visit back and forth with special permission," Rosa says. "I remember my mother's mother and a person they said was my Aunt Gisela."
In 1956, the little Speiser family moved to the states. At that point, Rosa spoke very little English but quickly caught on and soon forgot her native tongue. Her father, being career military, served in both Korea and Vietnam and as a result the family moved around the United States. When Rosa was 18 and the family was required to relocate to Alaska, she decided to stay with and help care for her grandparents in Jewell.
Fast-forwarding: Rosa and Mahlon each suffered the deaths their spouses. They married in 1997. Each has two adult children from their first marriages: Jeff and Greg Schultz and Kurt and Mark Tempel. Only a few years ago, Lizabeth finally shared the names of Rosa's biological father, Willy, and two siblings, Helga and Heinz. In March 2008, Lizabeth died in a Defiance nursing home.
Then the call came from Germany last February. Only Rosa wasn't there, she was at work.
"I went to her with tears streaming down my face," Mahlon says. "First I assured her that nothing was wrong, and then I asked where it was she had been wanting to go."
"I went into shock," Rosa says. "Then we were both crying."
"My sister wrote to the television show in January. They get about 200 letters a week and her's was chosen," Rosa says. "They couldn't even begin to start looking until 1990 when the Berlin wall came down."
From that point on, life became a whirlwind of activity because the television show was to be filmed before a live audience in March. Phone calls and e-mails flew back and forth between the two countries and the Tempels hurriedly arranged for their passports. The couple's children didn't even know about the momentous event because the Tempels signed a contract agreeing that they would tell no one until the show was filmed.
"I made up a packet of information about where we would be and how to get in touch with us in case of an emergency, taped it up real good and gave it to my son," Mahlon says, laughing.
"A film crew from the show arrived in Paulding March 6 and spent two days here. They interviewed us and filmed the courthouse and how they look up records, our church, our street sign, the house and me opening the door."
Joy at the impending reunion was tempered by the news that Rosa's biological father had passed away nine years earlier and her brother, Heinz, had succumbed to cancer in November 2008. One of Heinz' last requests was for sister Helga not to give up looking for little Roswitha.
All this time Helga didn't know the television show's staff had located the sister for whom she had searched so long. She agreed to come on the show to be interviewed under the pretext that when it aired, someone might come forward with some information.
Because of Helga's poor health and the fact she uses a wheelchair, she and her husband, Manfred, traveled six hours by car to the studio near Amsterdam. Through tight security and careful choreographing by the show's staff, Rosa was hustled into the studio.
One year to the day that their mother Lizabeth had died, Rosa stood anxiously off stage while Helga told what she remembered of when her mother left with her baby sister. And the footage filmed in the states was shown.
"I can't remember how they introduced me," Rosa says. "Everyone was crying. Helga kept saying, 'Meine kleine schwester! Meine kleine schwester (My little sister! My little sister!)!' She grabbed me and wouldn't let go."
The television show was going to put everyone up at a hotel, but Helga and Manfred wouldn't hear of it.
"I don't understand German," Mahlon says, "but, I heard them say 'No! No! No!' They insisted we come and stay with them at their home in Hagenow."
Despite language differences, the next days were filled with emotional visits as relatives arrived from all over. Rosa met her brother's widow and family and visited the cemetery where he was buried, placing flowers on his grave.
"When I got out of the car to meet my sister-in-law, she immediately leaned over to her daughter and commented on how much I looked like Heinz," Rosa says.
Rosa was in for one more surprise.
The "Aunt" Gisela that she remembered visiting from East Germany was in actuality her oldest sister, one of a set of twins. Her twin brother died at birth. She was raised by grandparents.
Although several of the pieces of the puzzle have finally been fitted into place, many questions remain unanswered.
"There were a lot of tears, a lot of laughter and some anger," Rosa says. "Why we didn't get to know each other, so much time lost. I didn't get to meet my brother."
"Heinz knows you were there, honey," Mahlon says comfortingly.
"So much is unknown, we'll never know why things happened the way they did but now we have some closure," Rosa says.
"The Lord's worked it out so far," Mahlon says.
Adds Rosa: "We just have to go on from here."
By
The Associated Press
12:10 PM Sunday, May 3, 2009
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/...printArticle=y
PAULDING, Ohio — Rosa Tempel's life has had all the plot twists and intrigue of a bestseller.
At first glance it doesn't appear so, however. She and her husband, Mahlon, live in an immaculate home on a quiet street in a small town.
That peaceful existence exploded in February with a single telephone call from Germany. Suddenly, many missing pieces of Rosa's life began to fit together. On the phone asking for "Roswitha" was a representative of a German television show that reunites families. Rosa had a sister who was trying to find her.
Roswitha was born in East Germany in 1950. Not long after, her father disappeared, leaving her mother, Lizabeth, to care for their children. Lizabeth tried several times unsuccessfully to escape into West Germany. In 1951, she was finally able to reach freedom with infant Roswitha by wading across a river into West Germany. During her flight, she was shot in the foot by border guards.
Why did Lizabeth leave her other children behind?
"I knew I had a sister and a brother back there, but my mother would never talk about it," Rosa says in her soft voice. "She said it was too painful."
Once her mother was halfway across the river, people from the west side were able to help her. Lizabeth found employment and eventually married an American serviceman stationed there.
Floyd Speiser adopted little Roswitha and was the only father she ever knew. While she was the youngest of her German family, she was the oldest child of Floyd and Lizabeth. In the meantime, her 5 1/2-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother went to an East German children's home. They remained close while growing up and never forgot about their baby sister.
Rosa does recall one visit with her mother's relatives from East Germany before moving to the United States.
"At that point, people could still visit back and forth with special permission," Rosa says. "I remember my mother's mother and a person they said was my Aunt Gisela."
In 1956, the little Speiser family moved to the states. At that point, Rosa spoke very little English but quickly caught on and soon forgot her native tongue. Her father, being career military, served in both Korea and Vietnam and as a result the family moved around the United States. When Rosa was 18 and the family was required to relocate to Alaska, she decided to stay with and help care for her grandparents in Jewell.
Fast-forwarding: Rosa and Mahlon each suffered the deaths their spouses. They married in 1997. Each has two adult children from their first marriages: Jeff and Greg Schultz and Kurt and Mark Tempel. Only a few years ago, Lizabeth finally shared the names of Rosa's biological father, Willy, and two siblings, Helga and Heinz. In March 2008, Lizabeth died in a Defiance nursing home.
Then the call came from Germany last February. Only Rosa wasn't there, she was at work.
"I went to her with tears streaming down my face," Mahlon says. "First I assured her that nothing was wrong, and then I asked where it was she had been wanting to go."
"I went into shock," Rosa says. "Then we were both crying."
"My sister wrote to the television show in January. They get about 200 letters a week and her's was chosen," Rosa says. "They couldn't even begin to start looking until 1990 when the Berlin wall came down."
From that point on, life became a whirlwind of activity because the television show was to be filmed before a live audience in March. Phone calls and e-mails flew back and forth between the two countries and the Tempels hurriedly arranged for their passports. The couple's children didn't even know about the momentous event because the Tempels signed a contract agreeing that they would tell no one until the show was filmed.
"I made up a packet of information about where we would be and how to get in touch with us in case of an emergency, taped it up real good and gave it to my son," Mahlon says, laughing.
"A film crew from the show arrived in Paulding March 6 and spent two days here. They interviewed us and filmed the courthouse and how they look up records, our church, our street sign, the house and me opening the door."
Joy at the impending reunion was tempered by the news that Rosa's biological father had passed away nine years earlier and her brother, Heinz, had succumbed to cancer in November 2008. One of Heinz' last requests was for sister Helga not to give up looking for little Roswitha.
All this time Helga didn't know the television show's staff had located the sister for whom she had searched so long. She agreed to come on the show to be interviewed under the pretext that when it aired, someone might come forward with some information.
Because of Helga's poor health and the fact she uses a wheelchair, she and her husband, Manfred, traveled six hours by car to the studio near Amsterdam. Through tight security and careful choreographing by the show's staff, Rosa was hustled into the studio.
One year to the day that their mother Lizabeth had died, Rosa stood anxiously off stage while Helga told what she remembered of when her mother left with her baby sister. And the footage filmed in the states was shown.
"I can't remember how they introduced me," Rosa says. "Everyone was crying. Helga kept saying, 'Meine kleine schwester! Meine kleine schwester (My little sister! My little sister!)!' She grabbed me and wouldn't let go."
The television show was going to put everyone up at a hotel, but Helga and Manfred wouldn't hear of it.
"I don't understand German," Mahlon says, "but, I heard them say 'No! No! No!' They insisted we come and stay with them at their home in Hagenow."
Despite language differences, the next days were filled with emotional visits as relatives arrived from all over. Rosa met her brother's widow and family and visited the cemetery where he was buried, placing flowers on his grave.
"When I got out of the car to meet my sister-in-law, she immediately leaned over to her daughter and commented on how much I looked like Heinz," Rosa says.
Rosa was in for one more surprise.
The "Aunt" Gisela that she remembered visiting from East Germany was in actuality her oldest sister, one of a set of twins. Her twin brother died at birth. She was raised by grandparents.
Although several of the pieces of the puzzle have finally been fitted into place, many questions remain unanswered.
"There were a lot of tears, a lot of laughter and some anger," Rosa says. "Why we didn't get to know each other, so much time lost. I didn't get to meet my brother."
"Heinz knows you were there, honey," Mahlon says comfortingly.
"So much is unknown, we'll never know why things happened the way they did but now we have some closure," Rosa says.
"The Lord's worked it out so far," Mahlon says.
Adds Rosa: "We just have to go on from here."