Bittersweet Memories

In my hub „Wartime Romance” I wrote about the love triangle between my dad writer and poet Eriks Raisters, his friend poet Andrejs Eglitis and my mom Elvira Grunte. Elvira chose Eriks to be her partner for life and this is a story just about them and how she felt after she lost him.

Elvira always felt that it had been fate that had brought her together with Eriks. Her first meeting with Eriks was while she was still attending high school. Elvira lived with her mother Emilja in the capital of Latvia, Riga. They lived on Gertrudes Street in the city center and had relatives who lived in the country. Her mother’s goddaughter Aina would often come to visit them because life in the country seemed rather slow for her. In Riga she could participate in social and cultural events. When Aina came to Riga she went to the theater and to the cinema and attended writers and poets gatherings. It was on this one occasion that Aina who was ten years older than Elvira was expecting two young gentlemen to come visit her. One was poet Eriks Raisters and the other writer Janis Kelpe. Aina urged Elvira to finish her studying so that she could introduce her to these young men. Elvira became curious to see these two young talents. The doorbell rang and there were the sounds of conversation and laughter. Finally Aina brought Eriks and Janis in to introduce them to Elvira. She noticed that Eriks was an attractive young man with glasses in round black frames. Aina headed to the kitchen and Janis went with her to help with the refreshments. Eriks stayed behind and inquired about what Elvira was reading and she showed him that she was reading the history of Latvian literature. When it was time for the guests to leave Eriks invited Aina to a literary gathering the following Saturday and asked her to bring Elvira along.

Saturday proved to be an interesting evening. It was the first time that Elvira found herself among writers and poets. During the evening people read poems, some told funny stories and everyone felt joyful. It was then that Elvira realized she hadn’t seen Eriks anywhere. Then the phone rang and Eriks announced the he had to work late and wouldn’t be able to come. After the phone conversation Elvira saw that the mood among everyone changed drastically because it was obvious that the person everyone had most waited to see was Eriks. Elvira was very disappointed herself and it would be some time before their paths crossed again.

Several years later Elvira was in university and had joined a student sorority. The sorority was hosting a literary gathering to which Eriks Raisters was also invited. After the official part was over Elvira and several of her sorority sisters had to help serve their guests food and drink. She noticed that there were many people gathered about Eriks and realized that their very first meeting had been forgotten. Afterwards Elvira attended quite a few literary evenings but always only saw Eriks from a distance. After one of these evenings she did see him standing on the street with a broad smile on his face but this was to be the last time that Elvira would see him in Latvia.

In 1944 Elvira arrived in Posen, Germany and later settled in the region of Schleswig-Holstein. Here for a short while she worked for the Latvian Red Cross. Afterwards accepting work at the Latvian Central Committee in Detmold. It was here that she started working alongside Eriks Raisters and she got to know the poet better.

One lovely winter day large snowflakes were drifting to the ground and Eriks invited Elvira to go for a walk with him at lunchtime. The Central Committee was located in a nice area and they both enjoyed the snowy roads. Their walk took them to the Hermann Monument which is the most famous statue in the Detmold area and commemorates those who died in the Teutoburger Forest during the Roman invasion. This was where they shared their first kiss.

The people who worked for the Committee were given living quarters in a hotel called “Frische Quelle”. Here Latvian writers, poets, artists, musicians and others gathered in the evening for various discussions. The more Elvira and Eriks had the chance to be together the closer they became. Everyone’s food supply was rationed and Elvira and Eriks decided to share theirs. They began to eat and cook together. Soon they had to leave Detmold and move to Augustdorf which was located in a lovely area with pine woods. It was here that they began to work for the newspaper “Nedelas Apskats” (“The Week in Review”). It was in Augustdorf that Elvira and Eriks got married on September 24, 1949.

Later on they arrived in America where Elvira said their real problems started but Eriks was always optimistic and didn’t let her worry. He worked as an editor for the Latvian newspaper “Laiks” (“Times”) and Elvira worked for an insurance company “American Express Company”. Elvira was glad that Eriks took care of their financial matters and she took care of the household.

Elvira said that at one time a woman had asked her how she had managed to turn Eriks into a family man. She replied that she had never tried to change him but that he himself settled down more and more each day being content with his life. When on March 1, 1957 their daughter Rasma was born it was Eriks happiest day. He would come home from work and spend time beside his daughter’s crib. It was at this time that they made sure that each hot summer their child spent in the country. First in the early years it was in Old Saybrook, Connecticut and later in the Catskill Mountains where Rasma could run and play watched over by a family friend and Eriks and Elvira would arrive to spend the weekends. The best times were vacation times when the whole family could be together.

Elvira said that it was on dark winter evenings that they would talk about their life in Latvia. It was during these times that Eriks would return in memory to his birthplace Ranka, to his father’s house “Livani” and he could relive his childhood days in the countryside. It was also during one of these trips down memory lane that they both remembered their very first meeting at the apartment on Gertrudes Street so many years ago.

All too soon their time together ended and when Eriks died Rasma was only ten years old. In Elvira’s own word, “With a light heart I can say that all our years together were sunny and filled with joy thank you Erik for that!”