That year, in early summer, the Grim Reaper was very active in Bad Münstereifel. The mounds of flowers which fans had heaped on Klara Klein’s elegant pink marble slab had barely begun to wither before another plot was opened to receive the earthly remains of Eva Kessel. And then my father felt the Reaper pass by, too close for comfort.
It was a Tuesday morning and both my mother and I were serving in the cafe. My father was alone in the kitchen as Achim Zimmer had taken a week off. This meant respite from Achim’s insinuating glances and clammy hands but rather slower progress than usual with the morning’s baking. A large group had come in very early in the day and not all the cakes and pastries were ready. My mother was waiting impatiently for a cherry streusel that would have to be served still soft and crumbling from the oven. When the streusel failed to appear and she had twice been summoned back to the table where two irritable customers were waiting, she went into the kitchen to investigate.
A moment later she came out again at top speed and ran straight to the telephone which hung on the wall near the coffee machine.
‘Mum?’ I said uncertainly as she punched numbers in. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Your father’s ill,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘Hello?’ she said into the receiver.
I listened to her speaking for a couple of seconds, then I ran for the door to the kitchen.
My father, clad in his baker’s whites, was sitting on a stool between two of the big metal units which stood against the kitchen wall. He was leaning against the wall, his face greyish and clammy-looking. His right hand fumbled at his left arm, as though he were trying to feel for a wound.
‘Dad?’
His eyes turned to me, but he said nothing. I heard my mother come running back into the kitchen and turned a stricken face towards her.
‘He’s not answering me,’ I said. ‘What’s the matter with him?’
‘I think he’s having a heart attack,’ said my mother.
She had a strange, blank look on her face, one I had never seen before. It took me several moments to realize that she was terribly frightened.