Anna was an intelligent girl, and after she had completed the 6^th class in her education she could have had the option of transfering to secondary school. However, her mother denied her that option, insisting instead that Anna help her in the house and the garden. This effectively set the pattern for her future life, which was to sacrifice her own needs for the greater good of the family, and after she'd completed the 8^th class she was sent to work in an oven factory where she earned a couple of francs a day. But she was not at all happy there and she soon left to join the Maggi company which suited her much better.

When she was 17 she lost two of her brothers within the space of a year, the eldest in a work-related accident, the youngest to diphtheria. This tragedy brought her much closer to her one remaining brother, my grandfather Fritz. When Fritz married, his parents provided them with a flat in their own house, so that both families were able to live under the same roof. Unfortunately Anna didn't get on too well with her new sister-in-law, Ida, who had something of a domineering personality. However, for Fritz and Ida's three children, Anna became an integral part of their family right from the start.

When Anna was 22, her mother suffered a stroke which left her in need of care. Anna therefore had to give up work so that she could tend to her, and keep house for her father. During the 1930s, the years of the depression, she spent a good deal of her time caring for her three nieces, while her sister-in-law went out to work. Throughout this time her life revolved around her brother's family. However, when her own mother died, she was able to return to her own job at Maggi and before too long she earned herself promotion.

When her father died in 1940 there was no longer any need for Anna to be tied to the house in Embrach, so she moved to Grafstal, from where it was much easier to commute to work. However, it was a lonely life for her and she wasn't particularly happy. When the opportunity came to move into a flat in Winterthur (in the Zielstrasse) with Lore, her second niece, and her husband she took it. Here she was much happier, close to her family and able to enjoy watching her three grand-nephews as they grew up.

She also remained close to her other two nieces, often visiting Erika in Embrach, and more than once travelling to England to see Trudi and her family.

In 1967 Lore and her family moved to a bigger home in Winterthur (in the Wartstrasse), and here too there was room for Anna to go too.

After she retired, she channelled her energies into gardening, and to house-keeping for Lore, who by that time had been widowed and had returned to work teaching. She was always there for her three grand-nephews, but once they had grown up and left home Lore and Anna returned to Zielstrasse, where they each had a ground-floor flat. There Anna would spend whole summers on her balcony where she'd created a container-garden, and she also enjoyed the bigger garden. Anna loved animals, particularly cats, and on long walks in the woods she was always delighted when she saw a squirrel or a deer.

In her youth Anna was a keen mountain-climber and she used to enjoy walking in the mountains with her brother Fritz, and later with her nieces and their families. As she became older her walks became less challenging, but she continued to enjoy them, even when eventually she had to use a walking stick.

At the time of her death in 2002 she was over 97 years old, but her mind was still alert and clear. Right up to the end she continued to read books and newspapers. In the evenings she would play patience, and would get frustrated if she couldn't complete a game. In the autumn of 2001 she began to weaken and to feel less well. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to cope in her flat, and in March 2002 she was taken to hospital where her condition began to deteriorate. Her final three weeks were spent in a nursing home where she was well cared for, and on 22 April she finally gave up the struggle to live.

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