After the war, flats were hard to get, but when mother´s
uncle Adolf hung himself in the kitchen that had cement
floor and sun stayed away as to tell us something about
the nature of hate. Mother´s uncle believed in new order
and they had given him a uniform which he used when
going to the park to feed the ducks. He had once been
an officer in the merchant navy and missed no being in
charge… the kitchen only had cold water and a hole for
water to disappear into, we also used it to crap in since
we had no loo. Mother put a slap on the hole when not
using it or rats would come eating our food. At night when
I had to pee, there was a pot under the bed because I did
not dare to go into the kitchen, because I once had seen
him hanging there. Adolf, not a big man, once I tried his
uniform on, it was big and on his cap there was a skull.
I walked out in the street to show the other kids, they
were impressed. Mother, very angry burned his uniform,
but amongst the ashes I found the silver skull.
