“This Is My Object”

This is an heirloom embroidered by my great grandmother. My great-grandmother passed down this tapestry to my grandmother. When my grandmother died, it came to me – because I’m the only person left in my family who speaks German. This is my object. Gutes Gericht, frohes Gesicht. [Good meal, big smile.] Besides me, nobody in my family understands what that’s supposed to mean. It is so goody-goody, so German. Each generation of my family was born in a different country. My great-grandmother was born in what is now Lithuania, in the Memel Territory, which was German-speaking. In the late 1920s, when my grandmother was six months old, she emigrated to South Africa. My mother was born in South Africa, then went to the US, where I was born. My great-grandmother spoke German, Russian, English, Yiddish, and even a bit of Lithuanian. But she felt strongest about German, which is why she always embroidered her handiwork in German. I don’t have a German passport, but I live in Berlin. I have a German husband and feel at home here.