Oma

My maternal grandmother was a large woman, tall (of course I was little) and by present standards definitely overweight. Her thin white hair, braided into a thin braid and then twisted into a bun, made her round face ever rounder. When she combed her hair out at night, it was very long, that was always a surprise. She was strict, but I don’t remember her being really unfair. Of course, she favored my brother, but that did not start bothering me until I was in my teens.
Once in a while I would be staying with my grandparents. On those occasion Opa was definitively the soft one. He let me play on his violin, and would tell stories. In the morning he would do excercises, and I would do them with him. We would play checkers. He would take me to the zoo. They were living in Rotterdam at the time, probably around 1950. Rotterdam was still being rebuild from the detruction from WWII, lots of construction going on. But their apartment was in a relatively older neighborhood The apartment buildings were about 4 stories high, and I remember tiled entrances to the stairways.
As a child you don’t analyze your elders. Oma certainly didn’t spoil us (that was much more Opa’s province), but I have fond memories.