Wishing tree campaign by the Munich Merkur: Warmth as a consolation against sadness
Created: 11/26/2022, 06:30
By: Max Wochinger
Amira Hazrat likes to go for a walk in the Oberhachinger Friedhof.
She feels related to the trees.
© Max Wochinger
Many seniors in the district have wishes that they cannot fulfill themselves.
The Münchner Merkur is helping again this year with the "Wish Tree Campaign".
Oberhaching
– Amira Hazrat gropes across the Oberhaching cemetery, stopping in front of a tree.
He loses his last leaves, the icy wind slowly carries them to the ground.
"I feel like the tree," says Hazrat.
She was sad and somehow naked.
"But the tree blooms again in spring.
I don't.” Who says that?
Amira Hazrat.
She is an early retiree, disabled, war refugee, mother, Afghan, unable to work, on welfare, suffering from pain, poor and divorced.
She is 51 and has a different name.
The real name shouldn't be in the newspaper, and she doesn't want to show her face either.
She is ashamed of what has happened in her life.
Hazrat's story begins with death.
Her mother died when she was five years old.
She grew up in Afghanistan, in the capital Kabul.
After school she started studying dentistry, dropping out after the second semester.
She was forced into marriage by her father to a young man she did not know.
He actually loved another woman, says Hazrat today.
They still had three children.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Afghanistan increasingly descended into chaos.
Guerrilla groups took power, the Taliban wanted to conquer the whole country.
Amira Hazrat's husband disappeared in the turmoil of the war, probably kidnapped by militias.
Refugee accommodation in Traunstein
The young mother fled the country with her children and reached Germany in 1995.
They came to a refugee camp in Traunstein.
The family initially received help from the German state.
"But I wanted to work to give my children better support," she says.
She worked as a shop assistant in a bakery, later as a cleaner.
After a few years, her missing husband turned up again in Afghanistan, he later came to the family in Germany.
She was able to get him a job as a driver.
It looked like everything was finally going to be fine.
And then came September 20, 2002. Hazrat took her children to school that Friday too.
Then she drove her car to her work, only ten kilometers.
Her shift at a clinic began at 9 a.m.
But she didn't get there: she had an accident with her car.
The then 31-year-old had probably strayed off the wet road and crashed into three trees - Hazrat can no longer remember the accident.
After an accident in the clinic
She was taken to the Traunstein Clinic.
The diagnosis: bleeding in the head, facial fracture, ruptured liver, broken left wrist, broken ribs, paralyzed eye muscles.
She was in mortal danger for three days and was in a coma for six weeks;
countless operations, physiotherapy and psychiatric treatments followed.
20 years have passed since the accident, but she is still being operated on.
The scars of the accident are written all over her face, and she tries to hide the hole in her head with her brown hair.
"Every day later I cried in front of the mirror," she says.
"But the worst thing for me was that I was in rehab for months and couldn't be there for my children," says Hazrat.
But she kept fighting.
A year after the accident, she was back at work.
Although she kept having double vision, her eyelid was disturbed and her wrist was actually completely broken.
Her marriage also went badly: After the accident, her husband became “a completely different person”.
"He looked at me like I was a wicked witch." They had two more children.
But there were always arguments.
Alone in Oberhachinger apartment
It was like this for almost 15 years.
Then Hazrat couldn't take it anymore: she broke up with him.
Today she lives alone in an apartment in Oberhaching;
the younger children live with their father in Traunstein.
Because of her disability, she can't look after her at all, says Hazrat.
But it wouldn't work without her children either.
It's a situation she never wanted: that her children have to grow up without a mother.
She couldn't feed them at all - the money isn't even enough for her own life, not even for a real winter jacket.
After the walk, she goes to a bakery to warm up and orders a little coffee.
Another cake?
No, no, replies Hazrat.
"Ah, perfectly happy," says the friendly saleswoman.
No, she's definitely not happy.
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Popular Pastor on "Holy Night": "A Story That Entices Your Heart"
fulfill a wish
Do you want to fulfill Amira Hazrat's wish for a winter jacket?
Then contact us as soon as possible, give us a call: Münchner Merkur, district editorial office, Tel. 089/ 66 50 87 33 or lk-sued@merkur.de
The Wishing Tree campaign: How you can help
Corona virus, energy crisis, inflation: pensioners will suffer particularly badly in the crisis year 2022. Even before the corona pandemic and the exploding energy costs,
poverty in old age was a big problem
in this country.
Older people often spend the last few years of their lives alone, in an apartment or in a home.
They are usually
provided with the essentials
, the money is not enough for more.
The Münchner Merkur wants to help these people with the "Wish Tree Campaign".
In the coming weeks we will introduce older fellow human beings with unfulfilled wishes
.
You, dear readers, may
pick a wish from the imaginary tree
, get and wrap the gift.
A personal greeting card is also a lot of fun.
We guarantee to deliver your gift personally.
Join us - and
give some warmth
in this challenging time.
There are also a number of
requests from people who do not want to appear in the newspaper
.
Be it out of shame about one's own need or out of reservations about asking strangers for help.
We want to fulfill these wishes too.
In cooperation with the Munich Senior Citizens' Aid "Lichtblick" we offer
the possibility to donate money
.
"Lichtblick" provides for the purchase of urgently needed things, such as a new mattress or shoes, quickly and unbureaucratically.
The account of the association
Lichtblick Seniorenhilfe is activated for transfers.
For a donation receipt, please enter your address.
IBAN: DE30 7009 0500 0004 9010 10 BIC: GENODEF1S04 Sparda-Bank Munich.
The password is "wish tree".
