Aunt Ümmü

Ümmü Yerlikaya came with her four children from Turkey in 1990. She joined her husband who had been living and working in Bremen for many years. Several years later the couple got divorced. Yerlikaya was left alone with the four children and had to provide for the whole family.
As the only thing she had learned was how to weave carpets, she found a job as a cleaning lady. At that time, at an adult age, she learned to ride a bike and started going everywhere by bicycle.
One source of income for Aunt Ümmü are the fruit and vegetables she grows in her allotment garden. Every Sunday she sells those at the flea market. Although she retired when she was 66, now at the age of 68 she is still working as a cleaning lady and in her garden because her pension barely covers her rent. Nevertheless, she refuses to apply for social assistance because as she says, ‘It is the right of the orphans, not mine’.
An archaic and poor life in Bremen, the centre of high technology industries like shipbuilding, automotive and aerospace industry. But a satisfying one.