Leap of Faith

About the Book

'A collection of five short stories - childhood memories, the quandaries of household repairs, ageing gracefully and the rarity of pandas. Looking at moments with awe, humour and patience, finding the balance between life's quirkiness and poetry.'

About the Author

Anna Danzinger (born Deissler) 6 November 1912 born in Taschwitz (at the time Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia) to Anton and Anna Deissler (born Riedl) 1914-1915 Anna Deissler, a porcelain painter, dies of pneumonia, leaving behind forester Anton with 2 infant girls. Anita and her sister Gisela are left in Viennese orphanage by widowed father. They are adopted separately. A distant aunt adopts smaller Gisela, “But they are sisters, they are together,” the orphanage says, “No, I can only take care of one girl.” Anita is left behind. Later, a widow with a little girl visits the orphanage, “Mother, take the one with the dark eyes, like that she will look more like my sister,” the little girl says. 1927-1943 Anita studies to become a Modistin. Some of her jobs are with hatmakers. 6 September 1936 Anita marries Franz Danzinger. Shortly before this she is reunited with her sister Gisela. 27 June 1939 Husband Franz joins the army as a male nurse, due to his bad eyesight. April 1945 Anita, 8-months pregnant, is evacuated from Vienna. The Allies bombard their apartment building, she, husband Franz and mother-in-law Maria are homeless. Anita lives and works on a farm in Schaerding (Upper Austria), where the aged farmer couple wishes to trade half a pig for Anita’s first daughter, “You are young, you will be able to bear more children.” 30 May 1945 Anita gives birth to daughter Elfriede Rosalia in Schaerding. First daughter Fridi almost dies a few weeks after birth due to neglect from farm family while mother Anita is hospitalised for breast infection. Fridi had drank some of the infected maternal milk. Both mother and daughter hospitalised. September 1945 Husband Franz discharged from army. 14 October 1946 Anita gives birth to daughter Maria Gisela in Andorf, Upper Austria. 27 December 1946 The family settles in a room and kitchen back in Vienna - Anita, husband Franz, daughters Fridi and Midi and widowed paternal Grandmother Maria Danzinger. 2006 Anita dies in Vienna, age 93.