Heidi Ester Morgan

Heidi E. Morgan was born ninety-four years ago in Podobowice, Poland, the second child of four, whose parents were German living in the Polish Corridor, a strip of land that provided Poland with access to the Baltic Sea, dividing Germany from East Prussia.  She died in Munster, Indiana.  Heidi was a foreign language teacher, feisty wife, controlling mother, cherished sister and aunt, a lady with legions of friends whose friendships she nurtured for decades.  Heidi liked to spark conversation with strangers and always discovered some common ground.  Above all, she deeply loved her family and her adopted country.

Heidi’s father was Mennonite and her mother’s family was agricultural gentry of the area. They managed large landholdings for baronial families.  And as such, Heidi and her siblings enjoyed living in the nobles’ mansions, large even by today’s standards.  It was a grand life. There was substantial staff for the house, private tutors, and horses for riding.

Heidi was an energetic and boisterous young girl, both in her behavior and her pursuits. She was highly competitive with her two-year older brother, Hans-Harald (“Ha-Ha”).  If Ha-Ha might leap over a flowerpot one foot high, Heidi would find a two-foot high flowerpot and do the same thing.  And so it was that she honed her competitive spirit to a fine edge, for it became even more important to her as a teenager, because to win and to survive became the same thing.

In 1939 the Great War started and Heidi’s father made himself unavailable for the military draft, as Mennonites are pacifists.  The war was being waged quite far away, on both the western and eastern fronts, and therefore little news came to them - until - the German army arrived and made off with most of their horses.  Then it was evident that if they didn’t flee, the Soviets would overrun them. 

Her family’s flight in the winter of 1945 forged Heidi’s resilient character for a lifetime.

January’s temperatures were bone chilling cold, below zero degrees Fahrenheit.  The Soviet Red Army was preparing to surround Góra, the village where her family lived at the Rhedaberg Estate. First, they attempted to flee with their belongings and the household staff on two large sleigh wagons powered by four horses each.  Alas, they made poor progress.  The snow was too deep and the roads were too narrow because they had to accommodate both German soldiers marching to the eastern front and injured soldiers being transported to the west. Airplanes bombed and strafed them.  They learned to dive into the culverts.  After only a few weeks, they were forced to ditch one of the sleigh wagons and turn back around.

Now home again and being close to the Baltic, they decided to escape the Soviet encirclement by taking a German freighter to Hamburg.  Soon thereafter, to their horror, thousands of bodies drifted to shore.  A German military transport ship was sunk in the Baltic by a Soviet submarine while evacuating thousands of German civilian refugees. Fleeing by sea was no longer an option. The Soviets also laid mines outside the port of Gdansk. 

Heidi’s father had connections and at long last, found a way for his wife and children to escape on a bus.  The bus would only take mothers with children, no luggage.  Just outside of Berlin, the bus ran out of fuel and the trip terminated. They were overrun by Eisenhower’s troops.  We all know that story – Eisenhower pulled back his troops to the west and suddenly the family was in Soviet territory again.

Heidi’s mother shaved her thirteen-year-old daughter’s head and dressed her as a boy for very good reasons.  At night they slept on straw.  Now they’re trying to flee by train.  One day their mother went searching for food and shelter, leaving Heidi’s brothers, Ha-Ha (15 years), Hilmar (11 years) and Heidi (with her two-year old sister, Hedda, in her arms), waiting on a train platform.  Ha-Ha and Hilmar could not defend themselves against a gang of boys.  The boys were other refugees, and they fought and robbed them of all the very few things they carried.

Their flight continued throughout the spring, summer, and fall of 1945.  They would make themselves useful to gain food and shelter.  Heidi knew how to milk cows and Ha-Ha could drive horses.  Heidi and her brothers would scrounge in the forests for cans of meat and bread that the soldiers left behind.  They would collect potatoes and cabbages from the fields, make a fire, roast the vegetables, and get fed.

Eventually in October 1945 the family found security, reaching Nienburg on the Weser River, in West Germany.  Heidi’s maternal Uncle Walter resided there and he provided them safe haven.  

Meanwhile, Heidi’s father had eventually escaped the Red Army, rowing a boat from Hel, a town at the very thin tip of the Polish peninsula, all the way across the sea to Denmark.  The Red Cross informed him where his wife and children were located; he was released from Denmark and reunited with his family in Nienburg/Weser.  The rebuilding of their lives began.

In 1950 Heidi applied to be an exchange student to the United States, through the auspices of the US State Department, as an “ambassador” from Germany.  Her application was accepted and she was selected by the Church of the Brethren to complete her high school education in Onekama, Michigan, near Traverse City.  At eighteen years of age, unable to speak or write English, Heidi set sail aboard the U.S.N.S. General Henry Gibbons to NYC, and then by bus to her final destination.  She settled with an older couple, Rev. Howard and Cora Helman.  They provided Heidi much needed love and recognition.  She rapidly became proficient in English and mastered driving a stick shift.  She was a frequent guest speaker at Rotary and Lions Club meetings and the like.  It was a simple life and Heidi flourished.  She graduated from Onekama Consolidated School in 1951 and returned to Germany.

Sadly, upon her return, Heidi discovered she had lost her rights to space, sleeping between her mother and father.  They sent her to finishing school and Heidi was soon employed as a nanny for a family near Bonn.  She was very unhappy for awhile.  Then – out of the blue – a letter arrived from Onekama!  It read:  If you can make your way back and agree to work summers picking in the cherry orchards and work nights in the string bean canning factory, we have a full scholarship for you to attend Manchester University in Indiana.  

So in 1956 Heidi graduated from Manchester University with a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction.  And two years thereafter she earned a Master of Arts for Teachers at Indiana University, majoring in Language Studies of German, French, and Spanish.  While at IU, Heidi was a member of Phi Sigma Iota (an international honor society for students studying foreign languages and literatures), and the Delta Phi Alpha National German Honor Society.  Post graduation Heidi was hired immediately by the Munster, Indiana school system.

In 1958 Heidi’s brother, Ha-Ha, was studying for his post-doc at Princeton and came to visit his sister over the Christmas holidays.  Heidi said she was flummoxed.  “How do I entertain my brother?”  She decided Ha-Ha would enjoy a private tour of a steel mill.  As it would go, their guide was a young handsome chap by the name of Arthur Morgan. Art met the love of his life and Heidi was smitten as well.  They were married in the summer of 1960, and one year later their daughter, Audrey, was born.  Several years thereafter, Heidi became a naturalized citizen.

As Audrey became of school age, Heidi became a full-time mother.  She actively volunteered at Ingalls Hospital, as a Cook County Election Judge, and at her church.  She became the first female elder at Redeemer Lutheran and served as a Sunday School Superintendent.  Heidi loved playing pinochle and bridge.  She was also religious about physical exercise. 

When Heidi celebrated her 60th birthday with a lavish party at the Tivoli Restaurant, Art toasted to her resilient life exclaiming:  “Heidi never stopped leaping over flower pots, although some of them look more like tall buildings!” 

Heidi was preceded in death by her parents, Erich and Erika, brothers Hans-Harald and Hilmar, and her husband of 64 years, Arthur.  Heidi’s daughter Audrey, son-in-law Jay, sister-in-law Angel, sister Hedda and a multitude of nephews and nieces survive her.  As a widow, Heidi received special caregiving from Jenny, Faiza, Rebecca, and Magaly.  These four devoted ladies were gifts from God. 

An inurnment service is pending at Westminster Presbyterian Church.

For additional information, please contact Hillside Funeral Home, Konnie Kuiper - Michael Kuiper-Vass by calling 219-838-0800 or visiting us at www.hillsidefhcares.com

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