It was not long after Gabriele was born and Friedel was still in the hospital in Bad Nauheim, when the Althoff Circus arrived in Butzbach for a few days. Of course I went to the matinee with Roy, who was already walking. It was the first circus performance that I went to after the war.

The program included a group of trapeze artists; they were called the Burketts. I didn't know them. They were obviously “countrymen” and they put on an excellent show. I was full of enthusiasm and decided to take Roy to visit the performers in their caravan after the show. I introduced myself, and we were greeted warmly. Then we tried to work out whether we had any contacts from the past, but nothing came up except a few names that we all knew. The Burketts were an old performing family. They included the father, Alfred, who was white, the Afro-German mother, Lilly, and their children, Charly and Manuela. There was also Waldemar, Waldi for short, a brother of Lilly, who was the catcher in the trapeze act.

They had survived the war in Wuppertal. Alfred had been called up to the army early and returned badly wounded. He had built up the acts again systematically with his family, but he himself now performed as a clown on the ground rather than on the trapeze. We chatted happily for about an hour, and then they had to go to their evening show and I had to take my son home. This brief encounter would later have very positive unexpected consequences for me.