Person:Hedwig Schatzinger (1)

    Hedwig Schlegel was raised in a very strict and sheltered Lutheran household.  She was alway told to sit quietly and still and not allowed to have friends over to play.  Hedwig was a beautiful little girl.  She said that one time a couple saw her in the store and thought she looked like a little porcelain doll.  They offered to buy her from Hedwig's mother, but of couse she refused.
    Hedwig had many talents.  She played violin until her hand was crippled from an ironing machine accident (around age 24)leaving her unable to play.  In addition, she was a facial beautician and treated many rich people at the local spas.  She also enjoyed acting in local theaters.
    When she was maid of honor at her cousin's wedding, her cousin asked which usher she would like to have as her escort.  She said the cute one with the dark curly hair.  That was Karl Jakob Schlegel to whom she later married.  Hedwig was a good drawer and during part of the war was stationed by Lindau-Boden-Friedrichshafen with her husband Karl, so she could do technical drawings of the U-boat (Submarine).  Although Karl's drinking sometimes drove her up the wall, she loved him dearly and never recovered from his death in the war.  Karl's brother Hermann offered to marry her, but she refused.  Inside she hoped that he still might be alive and would return to her.
    Hedwig was a strict and protective mother, but loved her children very much.  She also was an expert knitter and croqueter and taught her daughters the trade.  She joined the church around 1960, along with her daughter Klara.  She immediately was excited about Geneology and temple work which helped her come to terms with the harsh reality of her husband's death.  She had his work done and was sealed to him.
    Of all the children, Hedwig was probably closest to Klara.  It was hard for her when Klara moved to the United States and was married.  Both made frequent trips to visit each other.  Klara's daughter Jennifer also spent a summer with her grandmother Hedwig in Germany.  Hedwig was not a warm cuddly type grandma, but did have a good heart.
    In the 1980's Hedwig suffered from a stroke which left her partially paralyzed.  It was difficult for her to walk and talk, so Klara offered to care for her in the States.  For a while she walked with a cane, but after several falls, and further injuries, she used a wheelchair.  Further problems occured through gangrene and diabetes.  She eventually needed both legs amputated and then her arm.  She eventually died around 1987 after years of pain and suffering.  Her remains were cremated over the ocean as she had wished, joining her husband at sea.

1.   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ancestral File (TM). (June 1998 (c), data as of 5 JAN 1998).
2. ↑ Unable to disambiguate the place name given, directing birth place link to Germany in general