February 16, 1912
From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
Last night Uncle Felix came to have dinner with us. He was married to my Grandfather’s sister Lena. Grandmother says that he killed her but she didn’t tell me how. It would have been better if she had killed him instead. He is an ugly man with three beards on his face. One on each cheek, and one on his chin. He walks with a cane that has a crook in it and he likes to catch children’s legs with it when they are running and make them fall down. Then he laughs and laughs. I hate him. He carries peppermints in his pocket, just loose not in a paper bag, and they always look used and they are really peppery and burn. When he gives you one he insists that you eat it to be polite. Sometimes, I can’t find a place to spit it out without his noticing, but most times I can. Uncle Felix lives with all his children but really, only one of them at a time. I don’t know why, but I guess they don’t like him either and don’t want him to stay for very long. He loves to play cards and eat herring. Whenever he eats here, we have a big platter of herring right next to him at the table. It has an ugly gray sauce with raw onions floating in it and it smells nasty. After dinner, my Grandfather has to play pinochle with him until Uncle Felix wins some money.
I believe that Lena was Minna/Wilhemina, the sister of Jacob and my grandmother’s father. If so, they were the parents of Bertha Schiller. See the link to the Family Tree to understand family relationships. My mother lived with Bertha and her husband when she came to the U.S. in 1939.