For us, the fall of the wall lead to a wedding. Just a few days after the 9th of November, we picked up our Begrüßungsgeld (welcome money) in a bank near the Oberbaumbrücke. We were there for six hours and our children just wanted to leave!
But once we pocketed our money, we knew that we wouldn’t just spend everything simply because we now had it. We wanted to have something that would last. My husband and I had been living together for over 12 years, but we weren’t married yet. When we passed a jeweller on the way back, we went in and chose our wedding rings. It wasn’t difficult for us to choose the rings. I knew what I liked and so we chose two beautiful, fine rings. They had a lasting value, something we would wear every day. We also decided to get married the following summer. Without reunification, we probably would have never married. Being together was the most important thing for us, but getting married was the icing on the cake. In August 1990, shortly before our daughter’s first day at school, we finally got married. Our marriage lasted for 27 years, until the death of my husband. Today I wear both rings – mine on my finger and my husband’s on a chain around my neck.