Goodbye Berlin
Mother
Our Mother spent her days in the kitchen baking, boiling, frying, grilling and steaming. Every night we’d come in from school to marvellous cakes and cookies that she’d been busy baking during the day. When she wasn’t busy in the kitchen, she would be cleaning the house from top to bottom, removing every single dust particle she could see, polishing every piece of wooden furniture, and remaking the beds, checking for any creases we’d left behind. On Wednesday evenings, Mother would visit to her friends houses, or they would visit to ours, and they would share baking and talk about many adult topics such as politics and being good housewives. During these visits, Ayana would sit on the bottom step, waiting to clear plates and fetch cups of tea for the ladies. Mother told her, once she had come of age, she would be welcome to sit with them in the living room and join their weekly conversations – I’m sure she looked forward to this.