Chapter 2

Jana and Hagen ran bouncing down the stairwell of the apartment building in Potsdam-Schlaatz.

Schlaatz, a typical new development area of the 1970s and 1980s, was created at the time as part of a housing construction program due to the housing shortage in Potsdam.

There, with a lot of luck and a certificate of eligibility for housing, the two young people got hold of an affordable apartment in one of the many high-rises. They appreciated the green location, the good connection to the city center and the very affordable living space.

Jana's roly-poly baby bump bulged under her maternity dress, the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy was coming to an end. Just before the 8th month, it was time to buy a baby crib. This was their last major purchase and Jana was looking forward to it.

Her braid, tied into a ponytail, dangled happily back and forth with every hop she made on the stairs.

Hagen was already worried again that nothing happened to Pünktchen by jumping around and asked Jana to be a little more careful.

"Oh, Hagen, I'm only pregnant and not sick," she said, pinching his side. They named their child Pünktchen after Hagen saw it for the first time on the ultrasound picture in the eighth week of pregnancy. He didn't recognize it then and asked the gynecologist if it was the little dot that was supposed to be his child, tapping a spot on the screen with his index finger. The doctor laughed and nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yes, this little dot is your son or daughter."

Jana, on the other hand, handled her pregnancy a little more carefree. She had witnessed her mother's last two pregnancies at home and therefore knew exactly how to move.

Jana came from a family with many children. She had an older brother and three younger siblings. However, her mother's last pregnancy was a bit more stressful. She was expecting twins, and at the age of thirty-four, she was considered at risk. Jana was the only girl in the family and she regretted from time to time not having a sister.

It wasn't that she didn't love her brothers, but she would have been quite happy just doing girl stuff instead of roughhousing with her brothers, playing soccer, or playing on the floor with little cars.

Her older brother Marcel had moved out early, at seventeen he started training as a nurse in a hospital and was very lucky to get a small room in the nurses' home there.

Jana took care of her younger siblings very early, because her parents both went to work to fill all the hungry stomachs. Her father was a letter carrier and her mother worked as a cleaner by the hour in the evenings.

She often prepared dinner for her brothers and their father, took the twins Kai and Tim to soccer practice, or ironed their pubescent brother Jonas his favorite shirt.

At school, she didn't get great grades and was happy to leave school after the tenth grade with a secondary school diploma. She completed her last school internship at a nursing home in Babelsberg, where she realized that this job suited her. Even though her final report card was not the best, the nursing home decided to offer her an apprenticeship. They recognized in Jana the diligence, the warmth of heart and the joy of this