Mrs. Schneider comes from a small village

in Romania.

She loves to tell about her village.

About baking bread.

Going to the fields early in the morning.

As a girl, she fell from an apple tree.

She broke her leg.

She was not taken to the hospital or to a doctor.

Her leg grew back crooked.             

She read everything she could get her hands on.

Her father didn't like that very much.

He was worried about her. She should have been

out playing.

Mrs. Schneider was married off at the age

of fifteen.

She had her first child at 16.

She worked on her in-laws' farm as cheap help.

Her husband drank too much.

They divorced after emigrating to Germany.

Sometimes she now sees things that aren't there.

Yesterday was her 84th birthday.

Her children and grandchildren visited her.

I have rarely seen her so happy.