As I child I spent part of my long summer holidays in a small village. For me it was a paradise. Many dilapidated houses, endless forests, cherry trees with sweet cherries, which did not belong to anyone and a crowd of children of the same age.

Before the Second World War the village consisted of 36 houses, a school house and an inn. When I saw the village, only three houses were occupied all year round.

As a child I did not understand the history of the village. Only much later. I spent my holidays in a village, where the previous German residents had to leave their own village after the lost war with only a few belongings.

The only one who remained was Willy. Until today I don’t know why he stayed.

To us children he always gave chewing gum. But he was very strange and we preferred to forgo him.

The empty villages were repopulated after the Second World War. A couple moved to my holiday village and its three children occupied three houses. When I meet the couple, they were already old in my eyes.

The “old lady” often sat on a bench in front of the house in the afternoons and sang songs in a language, which I did not understand. In one summer I spent one month in Hungary. I learnt smatterings of Hungarian as well as a few children’s songs. When I returned to the village in the second half of the holidays, I unconsciously sang one of these songs. She heard me and called me to her. I had to sing all songs to her and tell her the words, which I had learned. As of this time I had to sing at least one of these songs, when I was nearby.

One day, she told me her story. As a young girl, before she had married, she had worked in Budapest. She said that these days had been the happiest days in her life. She mentioned several times that she had not wanted to marry. She simply did not want.

Today I imagine how difficult it must have been to leave a big city for a deserted village in the middle of the forest.

As a child I didn’t understand much. Today I think every now and then about her not easy life. I sang my Hungarian songs until her death. When she died she was blind and very old. But I think she had been at peace with herself and the world.