When it got really cold in the old apartment because the oil heating had broken down again, Pascha was responsible for the warmth; he at least warmed her heart. But now he is no longer there; a liver tumor had taken such a toll on the 15-year-old Labrador that he had to be put out of his suffering. When Birgit N. talks about it in the kitchen of her small but warm apartment, her gaze goes over to the small sideboard where an LED candle flickers in front of a picture of Pascha.
He was pretty neglected when she first took care of him. His master at the time didn’t care about Pasha more or less, and when he hung out with his friends in the park and drank alcohol, Pasha had to wait tied up until the man staggered home. At some point Birgit N. couldn’t watch it anymore and offered to look after the dog. Pasha was six years old at the time and so impetuous that he tore a muscle tendon in her right arm when he pulled on her leash. “But I trained him and he became calmer.”
That’s why she was able to bring him to work, which was a car sign company near the Pasing town hall. The now 63-year-old worked there for seven years, then the company had to close in 2020, she lost her job and has not found a new one to this day. “I’ve worked all my life, but now I’m having a hard time finding something,” says Birgit N.
Osteoarthritis in her joints bothers her; she had surgery on her lumbar vertebra eleven years ago, and two years ago doctors discovered damage to her cervical vertebrae. At least her right wrist has healed well; she broke it while walking Pasha when she lost her balance and fell while stepping into a hole in the ground that was covered by leaves.
She was born in Harthof. When she was nine years old, the family moved to Neuperlach, which was then just being built on a greenfield site. She graduated as a hairdresser, then worked piecework producing mail order catalogs near the Ostbahnhof, and later at a car parts dealer in Neufahrn. In between, she gave birth to her two children, a son in 1978 and a daughter in 1986. Then the marriage broke up, but she still maintains good contact with her children to this day.
She no longer dared to invite anyone into the neglected house
But then she no longer dared to invite anyone to the neglected house in Pasing with the broken oil heater, where she lived in a small apartment. It was furnished, so Birgit N. now has virtually no furniture in her new home at Michaelibad in a housing estate from the 1930s. There are two small rooms and the kitchen. She sleeps on an inflatable mattress that her son brought over. Although he doesn’t live far, in Neuperlach, he recently spent years looking after his seriously ill grandmother, “my mother-in-law”. Her ex-husband was long dead by then, having died of lung cancer in 2008 at the age of just 49, “just as he had just stopped smoking.” Since her son is currently retraining, he doesn’t have much time to help her set up. Attach a lamp here for 30 euros, attach a curtain rod there or a shower curtain.
“At my age, an air mattress isn’t right.”
She hardly has any money to buy the bare necessities. She cooks it, which doesn’t cost much; it’s usually enough for two days. “It’s good that I at least have a large refrigerator, so I can always shop when things are on sale,” says Birgit N. It’s one of the few things she took with her from her old apartment worn chairs in the kitchen and the round table. “I don’t need much,” she says. But she would be very happy about a real bed, “at my age an air mattress is not the right thing.”
She still feels a bit lonely here, “I don’t know the people yet.” She has already thought about “getting a dog from the animal shelter, they would be grateful for it.” But she hesitates: And what if “something happens to me when I have to go to the hospital? I can’t do that to the poor little thing.” She doesn’t have any big plans until she gets her pension, which will probably be around 800 euros; lately she hasn’t paid in much more; unemployment benefit was followed by citizen’s benefit. But when she’s in good health, she wants to go back to work, “even if I just stock shelves every hour.” The main thing is “that I get to meet people and see how life goes on.”
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