Never forget the homeland
Christel Leuker was born in December 1940 in Soest, North Rhine-Westphalia. She grows up there and learns the profession of a kindergarten teacher. She works in this field for several years in the cathedral city until her adventurous spirit takes hold, and she decides to move to the USA, to Cincinnati, for a year and a half in 1964. She makes the crossing on the ship “Bremen.” Upon her arrival, she is welcomed by a German physician’s family and soon meets her future husband. She receives the poetry album from her grandparents on White Sunday 1950 for her first holy communion. At that time, this is a very valuable gift and is well cared for by her, as in this book her family and friends write special lines with wishes for her future. On the day of her emigration to the USA, this album is among the belongings she takes on her journey. She particularly remembers the following saying from the book: Never forget the homeland, where your cradle stood. You will find in a foreign land no second homeland.
Poetry Album, 1950
