Many senior citizens in the Munich district do not have enough money.
Often there is not enough left for an extra wish.
Münchner Merkur helps - with the Wunschbaum campaign.
Today: Maria-Luise Erath from Unterföhring.
Unterföhring
- Many seniors are particularly suffering from the Corona crisis.
Even before the pandemic, old-age poverty was a major problem in Germany.
In the last few years of their lives, older people often live alone, in their own apartment or in a home.
Those affected are usually provided with the bare essentials.
There is not enough money for more.
Münchner Merkur has now set up the "Wish Tree Campaign" for them.
In the coming weeks we will introduce older people with unfulfilled wishes.
You, dear readers, can pick a wish from the imaginary tree, get the gift and wrap it.
A personal greeting card gives people a lot of joy.
We guarantee to deliver your gift personally.
Many more wishes
There are also many other wishes that do not find their way into the newspaper.
Be it out of shame about your own need or out of reservations about asking strangers for help.
Some older people are no longer able to express their wishes due to their mental state.
However, their supervisors see a need.
We want to fulfill these wishes too.
In cooperation with the Münchner Seniorenhilfe Lichtblick, we offer the opportunity to donate money (see below).
Make a Christmas joy with it, give a warm heart during this challenging time.
For example to Maria-Luise Erath from Unterföhring.
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Maria-Luise Erath would like a nice sweater or a shopping tour.
© Robert Brouczek
She is alone.
As a young woman she was on the move a lot.
Always curious, always among friends.
Erath is now 75 years old and is in a wheelchair.
The pensioner lives in the senior center in Unterföhring.
She doesn't get any visitors there.
The rest of her relatives live on Lake Constance, friends have moved away, become sick or died.
About a woman who has no one left and is still satisfied.
Erath was born and raised on Lake Constance.
She worked as a typist in Bregenz.
Later she wanted to learn another language, she went to Paris for a year.
“On Sundays, when I had a day off, I took the bus around,” says the 75-year-old.
She looked at cathedrals and visited champagne cellars.
"In the end I mastered the language like my own"
After her time in France, she moved to Munich to work as a secretary.
Until she went abroad again.
This time to London, she worked in a hotel and went to secondary school on the side.
She stayed in the British capital for five years.
“In the end, I mastered the language like my own,” says Erath.
Finally she came back to the Bavarian capital and worked as a production assistant at Bayerischer Rundfunk.
Skiing, hiking, going to the opera: Erath was on the road a lot.
She lived alone in Bogenhausen, she was never married.
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The wish tree campaign by the Merkur editorial team in the Munich district.
© MM
Then came health problems.
Erath suffers from a joint disease, she has artificial knees, and she recently had an operation on her elbow.
She took early retirement because of the illness and has lived in the senior citizens' center in Unterföhring for five years.
Because of her physical limitations, she almost never leaves Unterföhring.
She only comes out of the community for patient transport to clinics.
Sometimes the nurses bring her to the entrance area of the senior citizen center.
Then she speaks to visitors to find out “what the world is like out there,” she says.
The wish: a shopping spree at Galeria Kaufhof
The pensioner was last shopping herself four years ago. “I urgently need clothes,” she says. Caregivers always bring clothes for her, but the senior citizen wants to choose clothes herself. A shopping tour at Galeria Kaufhof, that is what her heart desires. This requires transport for the handicapped, Erath cannot afford the expensive taxi himself. Because it's not that easy to organize, she would be very happy with a nice sweater too.
The elderly woman has no relatives or friends.
"I have no one here."
Other residents of the home often get visitors, Erath only has the people in the home and the nursing staff.
It is not easy, she says, especially since she is constantly dependent on help because of her immobility.
“But I've seen a lot,” says Erath.
She is satisfied.
She also no longer wants to travel, a round through the park of the senior citizen center is enough for her.
"I can die."
Wish tree campaign:
Do you want to fulfill Maria-Luise Erath's wish for a sweater or a shopping tour (organization of transport for the disabled)?
Then contact us as soon as possible, give us a call: Münchner Merkur, district editorial office, phone: 089/66 50 87 33.
Bring joy with a donation
Do you want to help elderly people in the district, but you don't have time to personally get a wish from your heart?
Then give money and donate.
Together with the Munich association Lichtblick Seniorenhilfe, Münchner Merkur enables the wishes of senior citizens in the district who do not want to read their personal story in the newspaper.
Lichtblick takes care of the purchase of urgently needed items, such as a new mattress, quickly and unbureaucratically.
Please transfer funds to the account of the Lichtblick Seniorenhilfe association at Sparda-Bank Munich.
Please provide your address for a donation receipt.
IBAN: DE30 7009 0500 0004 9010 10
BIC: GENODEF1S04
The password is "Wunschbaum".
