- 103 and still soaring high above the sky
“You know these little coffins?” Bertha Modlich asks me. I beg your pardon? “My mother is referring to the business class seats on the Air Canada planes,” Regula Modlich, Bertha’s daughter, clarifies. “Aren’t they more like beds?” I ask, never having had the pleasure of flying business class. “They’re like coffins, ‘Särgli’,” Bertha Modlich corrects me jokingly. “You spend so much money on a business class ticket and then they put you in these boxes!” she says describing her trip to Switzerland last year. “I was sitting next to Regula and the only thing I wanted to do, of course, was talk to her throughout the night. But with these walls between the seats you can hardly talk. So I said the next time it’s either coach or I’m not flying!” she adds. On her trip to Switzerland in the Spring of 2009 she flew economy.”
With her cheerful manner and the happiness she emanates, one would not believe that Bertha Modlich’s life was overshadowed by both world wars. She spent a happy childhood in Horn in Küsnacht, across the lake from the Sprüngli factory, where her grandfather opened one of the first silk weaving mills. “When there was wind, we could smell the chocolate in the air…,” Bertha Modlich says, revelling in memories and a chocolate addiction to this day. Her youth was full of gardening, porcellan painting, music, skiing, skating – including being the 1933 Swiss champion in pair skating. Professionally she became a hand weaver and produced the upholstery fabric for the Baur au Lac, Zürich.
“I moved away when I got married. I met my husband at the celebration of the 150th anniversary of my school in Küsnacht. We had known each other before, because we went to school together in Switzerland, even though he was German. Well, and he wanted to marry me!” she says and laughs. “And then I moved to Berlin. Because of my marriage I automatically became German – and lost my Swiss citizenship – and a large part of my dowry to help a Jewish family to get out of Germany. I did get permission to stay in Switzerland for one year though, when I was pregnant with Regula. I gave birth to her in Switzerland on the day the war broke out. The doctor who came was wearing his uniform.”
“We were evacuated from Berlin to the Hotzenwald, north of Säckingen. My husband was called to duty as an electrician. This was very advantageous for him, because he didn’t have to wear a uniform, he didn’t have to go fight on the front line. During these years, we only saw each other twice. We first lived in a place with flee and lice. But then we could move in with a widow, her daughter and granddaughters who owned a store and lived in a nice Black Forest house. We were not that badly off. At that time, us women, we had to work very hard…cut the grass, make hay…”
“In the Hotzenwald Regula got infested with fleas and lice. The poor girl was bitten so badly all over her body! By courtesy of a public officer in Baden Baden, I got the permission to send Regula, who was four years old at the time, to my sister in Switzerland. They thought she had scarlet fever or the like! We were so lucky just to be alive” Bertha Modlich says, displaying her remarkable ability to look on the bright side. Only after I inquire, she says: “First we had to walk through the dark forest until we reached the bus. And then to let go of my child…”At that time, Bertha Modlich did not know that for three years, she would live separated from her oldest child. Bertha Modlich sighs: “There was a lot that was difficult.”
“After the war, my husband started up a business in Karlsruhe together with a colleague of his. But the partner was a little unstable,” Bertha Modlich says and Regula explains: “He gambled a lot and had a racing stable.” “A racing stable and megalomania!” Bertha Modlich interjects and laughs. “So my husband backed out of the business and decided to emigrate to Canada. Two times he went to see how it was and the third time we went along with him!”
“Besides knitting, looking after my garden and orchids, I enjoy making pottery,” Bertha Modlich tells me about her hobbies. “My friend Martina and I stopped about a year ago, but now, we want to continue! I started with a class at Central Tech. The reason was that I wanted to have straight flowerpots instead of the regular funnel-shaped ones. With the evening classes in Canada you can study anything you can think of, it’s wonderful!“
“I am spoiled,” Bertha Modlich says. “I was able to fly back to Switzerland and visit friends and family so many times. My family and my roots are most important to me. And my children, Hans and Regula, they look after me…marvellously! I think that’s why I am so well.” Observing the tranquil beauty of nature from her own little cabin and rowboat at Woodlake with her children, grand children and soon great grandchild gives her special joy.
After we finish talking, I help clear the table and Regula starts doing the dishes. There is no dishwasher. When Bertha Modlich comes walking into the kitchen she says reproachfully: “Now Regula, leave that! You already set the table and made tea. I will do the dishes after you’ve left.” What an amazing woman she is!
J.B.
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