Opa (Part one)

“It feels like there is an empty pit inside of me that grows with every day I see my mom go through this battle. I feel so helpless, watching her suffer and slowly shrivel away.

I can’t help her and it’s beginning to devour my soul.” – From the novel, “Secret World –The beginning”

I wanted to talk to you today about what happened that inspire me to write this section.

There was a man in my life whom I loved very much. He was my opa. I remember, us going bike riding together and how we used to take walks in the park, in Obertshausen, right behind the neighborhood he lived in. He was such a kind man and yes I admit, he was my favorite grandpa (opa). I remember him watching cartoons with me in the morning as I ate breakfast and how he play board games with me in the evening. I absolutely adored that man.

The last memory I have of him before the accident was being in his arms and him reading a farm book to me about pigs. I hold onto that memory like it is rich treasure.

In 2000 (January, I believe) my opa (in his 60s) took his very sweet, black, great dane, named Lanka, out on a walk in Obertshausen, Germany. He always would take Lanka to a park behind his neighborhood and let her run around without a leash on, (in a small open area) so she could get her energy out. This wasn’t a busy park anyways and I have personally seen many people do this before.

As she is running around, a fit man in his 30’s was taking his dachshund out on a walk on the concrete path surrounding the park. Lanka approached the dog to say hi and the dog began to aggressively snap at her. She snapped back and my opa ran to his dog and made her sit down. As he was leashing up Lanka, the owner of the dachshund, punched my opa in his head so hard that he fell over on the cement pathway. Then the man climbed on top of him, grabbed him by his skull, and smashed his head into the cement, over and over.

A lady raking up leaves in her back yard, saw this happening, and started screaming, “STOP!” He wouldn’t. So she grabbed her rake, ran over, and started hitting the 30 year old man on his back with the rake. This caused him to stop and he got up, took his dog, and left. The lady ran inside to call an ambulance, and my opa, who now had a part of his skull crushed, gets up in a state of confusion, picks up his dog’s leash, and his dog leads him home.

That night at 7 pm, my oma comes home to her husband and his dog sitting on the front steps, bleeding everywhere. She asked him what happened, and he told her that he can’t remember. Immediately, my oma took him to the hospital, where he was placed in critical condition.

After being there for several days, she took a small break and went to get her hair done. As she was in the salon, she was telling her hairstylist what happened, (she thought my opa may have taken a bad fall but was unsure) and the lady beside her, getting her hair done, turns to her and asks, “Does your husband own a black great dane?”

It turns out, that was the woman, who hit the man with her rake. She explained that my opa hadn’t fallen, but was attacked.

Fast forward in time, the police found the man. When my family took him to court, he claimed self-defense. From my understanding, he told the courts that he was afraid that my opa was going to give his dog an attack command…and that he hit my opa, to stop him from giving that command. (Lanka was not an attack dog. She didn’t know any commands of the sort. Also if Lanka had been an aggressive dog, she would have attacked the man, when he attacked my opa.) I guess he must have had a really convincing lawyer, because he won the case and is walking free.

(Continued on next blog- Opa Part 2)