Gertrudis se llenó de valor y fue a la cocina, movió la alfombra persa sobre la que estaba la mesa del comedor y encontró la compuerta de madera que daba acceso al subterráneo. Tomó una linterna y accedió por medio de unas escaleras al lugar. Esa era otra casa, equipada con todo: refrigerador, juegos de muebles, cocina y camas. Gertrudis no podía creer lo que estaba mirando. Allí estaba una historia "perdida" de la familia.

Enseguida se dispuso a sacudir todo con calma. No fue el trabajo de un día, sino de quince días seguidos. Cuando su hermana la llamó, como de costumbre, no quiso contarle nada; a fin de cuentas, ella había jurado no regresar a esa casa que siempre la invadía de tristeza, porque en verdad, su madre era una mujer silenciosa y melancólica, y su vida se limitaba a hacer las labores del hogar como una sonámbula.

La lectura del diario de Nathalia logró conmover demasiado a Gertrudis, quien se sentía un poco egoista por tener una casa con tanto espacio para ella sola, ya que había logrado ser una copia fiel de su madre, encerrándose en la casa por miedo a la humanidad; entonces buscó una página de internet para ofrecer asilo a familias que lo hubiesen perdido todo a causa de la guerra.

Enseguida le respondió Sofía Shevchenko, una madre de dos niñas que había tenido que abandonar su casa ubicada en Chernígov, debido a los bambardeos del año 2022.

Gertrudis habló con ella para ofrecerle un espacio en su casa, le envió el dinero para los pasajes y así acordaron toda la logística del viaje y del encuentro.

Cuando Gertrudis se encontró con Sofía se sorprendió del parecido extraordinario que esta tenía con su madre. Eso hizo que su corazón se acelerara. Todo parecía encajar de una manera casi mágica: la lectura del diario, encontrar el sótano, motivarse a escribir para ayudar a una familia y el encuentro con Sofía y sus dos niñas.

La convivencia de Gertrudis con Sofía y las niñas trajo alegría a la casa. Gertrudis se obligó a salir con las niñas al parque, y así comenzó a ver lo hermosa que era la vida fuera de las paredes de su hogar y lo lindo que era sentir que no estaba sola en el mundo.

Gertrudis was a distant person. Since her mother died, she decided not to interact with anyone or leave the house. She handled everything online: food for the week, bills for utilities, and medication.

Once a week, she spoke with her sister, who lived in Bonn. She always insisted that she sell her mother's house in Hamburg so they could be together, especially in these times when a simple difference of opinion between the leaders of two countries was enough to cause them to declare war. But Gertrudis's sister's words never met with a response. Rather, they met with an awkward silence that ended with a simple: "I'll call you next week, sister."

Gertrudis, unlike what most people thought, was a very sensitive person who sympathized with everyone's pain. He constantly looked through the diary his mother had left on his nightstand. It contained everything his maternal family had suffered in the war that raged in Germany in 1917.

_Pixabay

Reading the diary, he learned that there was a basement in the house where he lived, and that when When the war broke out, her grandmother hid there. She was the only survivor of the Fischer family and her daughter Nathalia. That is, Gertrudis's mother, who was barely a year old. In the diary were photos of her maternal grandmother and her mother.

Gertrudis plucked up courage and went to the kitchen, moved the Persian rug that covered the dining room table, and found the wooden hatch that led to the basement. She took a flashlight and accessed the basement via some stairs. It was another house, equipped with everything: a refrigerator, furniture sets, a stove, and beds. Gertrudis couldn't believe what she was seeing. There was a "lost" history of the family.

She immediately set about calmly clearing everything out. It wasn't the work of one day, but of fifteen days straight. When her sister called her, as usual, she didn't want to tell her anything; After all, she had sworn never to return to that house that always filled her with sadness, because in truth, her mother was a silent and melancholic woman, and her life was limited to doing housework like a sleepwalker.

Reading Nathalia's diary deeply moved Gertrudis. She felt a little selfish for having a house with so much space to herself, since she had managed to become a faithful copy of her mother, locking herself in the house out of fear of humanity. So she searched for a website offering asylum to families who had lost everything due to the war.

She was immediately contacted by Sofia Shevchenko, a mother of two girls who had had to leave her home in Chernihiv due to the bombings of 2022.

Gertrudis spoke with her to offer her space in her home, sent her the money for the tickets, and thus they agreed on all the logistics of the trip and the meeting.

When Gertrudis met Sofía, she was struck by the extraordinary resemblance she bore to her mother. It made her heart race. Everything seemed to fit together in an almost magical way: reading the diary, finding the basement, being motivated to write to help a family, and meeting Sofía and her two girls.

Gertrudis's time with Sofía and the girls brought joy to the house. Gertrudis forced herself to go out with the girls to the park, and so she began to see how beautiful life was outside the walls of her home and how wonderful it was to feel she wasn't alone in the world.

End

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