Saturday, February 7, 2009
Conrad Joseph Schindler - Dad
My
father, C.J. Schindler (or Conrad or Connie) was always a story teller.
I have heard many versions of his stories so I pick the version I like
it becomes the truth!
He was born to a family of
Austrian Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, German immigrants. Depending on
where borders were at the time in history. His mother was Barbara Szofron from Timişoara, Hungary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timi%C5%9Foara) and his father was Frank Schindler from Dittersbach, Austria.
Connie and his sister,Teresia spent their childhood surrounded by many of the Szofron relatives.
Life
was filled with family, work, and school until Conrad was 16. They
lived out on a farm a distance from St. Louis so when he went to school,
he stayed with relatives in St. Louis and went home on weekends. One
Friday, Barbara went with Frank to pick up Conrad and on the way home
another car ran them off of the road. Barbara was killed and Frank and
Conrad were taken to the hospital where they both remained in a coma for
a week. Terry stayed with relatives and was the only member of the
family to go to Barbara's funeral.
Life got back to normal for a few years until Frank decided to return to his homeland and marry his childhood sweetheart, Ida Mautch.
He decided to take Terry with him. She was in the last few months of
High School to Germany with him. It never occurred to her to go against
her father's wishes but it remained a disappointment for her for the
remainder of her life.
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