Congratulations on your 100th birthday!
Irene John celebrates her "round" birthday on 4 May 2014
On 4 May 2014, Irene John celebrated her 100th birthday in Chemnitz. A representative of the Mayor's Office will be bringing congratulations from the City of Chemnitz to the "Marie-Juchacz-Haus" care home for the elderly at Max-Saupe-Straße 43 in 09131 Chemnitz at 2.30 pm.
Irene John, who was born in Chemnitz, has been living in the senior citizens' care home run by the Workers' Welfare Association for five years and occupies a single room here. The regular visits from her family are a welcome change in the everyday life of the senior citizen, who is now severely restricted in her mobility.
She fondly remembers the years in which she worked as a lower school teacher at the Humboldt School in Chemnitz - a job that was a vocation for her. In 1948, shortly after the end of the war, she took up this job as a single mother of two children and remained enthusiastic about it until the age of 60. For the passionate teacher, being awarded the title of head teacher was the highlight of her successful career.
She never had it easy herself and had to cope with many a stroke of fate at a young age. She lost her mother when she was just 13 years old. Later, as a wife and mother herself, one of her three children died very young and her husband Heinz was killed on the last day of the war. The bombing of Chemnitz on 5 March 1945 also took the roof over the family's heads.
So there is every reason for the family, which now includes son Peter and daughter Ursula as well as three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, to celebrate this special birthday together.