A woman’s journey to achieve the American dream
America was built on the foundation of immigrants from all over the world and because of this America is full of stories of starting from the ground up. Many take a leap of faith in moving their entire life to find the American dream of owning a house, having a family, having a successful career, and most importantly having a happy life. One woman from Germany made that leap of faith in the 1950’s and struggled with poverty, adultery, and discrimination. After years of searching for the American dream that was always advertised throughout her childhood, she later learned that the American dream is what you make of it yourself.
Germany-January 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg has appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor and by March Hitler officially comes to power over Germany after the Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act of 1933. Seven months later a young woman is born on September 29th named Gerlint Ursula Zuge.
By the early 1950’s, despite her father’s wishes, she left her extremely wealthy life in Germany and traveled to America and was sponsored by a wealthy Jewish family from New York City who hired her as their nanny for two years. After living in New York City she decided to join the US Air Force as a weather forecaster.
While serving in the Air Force, she met a young man named Mariano Lugtu Ycmat, a handsome young soldier from the Philippines with enough confidence and charm to sweep her off her feet. After dating for only a few months, they decided to elope to Lincoln, Nebraska and got married in 1958 before returning back to Denver.
After moving back to Denver and living happily while her and her husband both still served in the Air Force, Gerlint gave birth to their first son Mario in October of 1960. She decided that she wanted to give more attention to her family and decided to leave the Air Force, while her husband still decided to serve. Mariano was soon stationed back in his homeland of the Philippines, so they packed their bags and moved to the Clark Air Force Base with their young son.
Mariano was proud to have his family in his hometown and they even gave birth to another baby boy named Robert in 1961 and a daughter named Sharon in 1964, but the stress of the Air Force and his violent temper caused him to drift apart from Gerlint and their three children. He had multiple affairs with different woman and started to become verbally abusive to Gerlint and their oldest child, Mario. Words turned into fists and before long, Gerlint and their son Mario hardly went a day without being beaten or torn down by Mariano.
After a few years of torment and an abusive marriage, Gerlint caught Mariano and a young chinese woman in bed together. The woman became pregnant and after nine months, the woman passed away from childbirth but gave birth to a healthy babygirl named Cookie. Mariano decided to take the child in and raise her with Gerlint and their three other children.
With the welcoming of a new baby in the home, Gerlint found this as an opportunity to save her marriage and the children. She decided to move back to the United States and found a job as a long distance operator for a company called Pacific Bell. Though she still remained married to Mariano, he remained in the Philippines while she took care of the children in San Francisco.
San Francisco has always been one of the most expensive cities in the nation and working as a long distance operator could barely provide food on the table, let alone pay for rent. She could not count on Mariano to send money since he hardly kept in contact and was busy sleeping with other woman Her and her four children found themselves living in their station wagon.
One day while driving around the city, completely broke with only a few dollars in her pocket, she stopped at a grocery store to buy a loaf of bread for her hungry children. As she handed out pieces of bread to the kids in the backseat, she quietly sobbed in the front seat wondering where she was going to go next.
After it seemed like all hope was lost for finding the perfect American home for her kids, Mariano finally decided to return back to California and bought a small home for the family in Vacaville, California before he was stationed in Vietnam.
Gerlint and her children were finally in a safe space but with her husband still remaining unloyal overseas and still becoming very abusive with her and the children, she finally decided to get a divorce. The divorce was quick and Mariano didn’t fight back. They both agreed that their marriage had been over long before.
Gerlint was finally free from a difficult marriage and had a roof over her head that made her and her children feel safe. She finally felt like she had found her American dream in her loving kids and her friends. She spent the rest of her life trying to bring joy and happiness to those she loved. By the time all of her young children had turned into adults, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and passed away just in time to see her first grandchild born. Though she died at a young age, her strong courage and faith is taught every day and has become a prominent inspiration in her grandchildrens lives.