The nurse for the elderly

Sitting in her kitchen in Leipzig, Susann Porter is remembering the days when she was still Susann Heinrich and Leipzig belonged to communist East Germany.

Her boyfriend at the time was called Mike – he was a musician and planning a record. But the singer in his band had applied for permission to move to West Germany, and when her departure permit was approved, he was left without a front woman.

"Hey Susann, you can sing," he said. And that's how it all began. "You're our front woman now, they said," recalls Susann as she stirs the soup for her daughter. These days, she works as a nurse for the elderly, and she tends to be exhausted by the time she gets home.

The night everything changed

While the people of East Germany took to the streets in 1989 to protest against the communist dictatorship, Susann Porter and her band were busy getting ready for their first concert.

Susann's father was an officer in the East German army and a party faithful. She looks back at the autumn of 1989 in Leipzig with mixed feelings.

"On November 9 I was worried about my father, because he was on duty," explains Susann, who's now 45. "I was afraid he would have to use force against the demonstrators."

"I belonged to a completely different world (to his), and I was afraid that I also took to the streets I might end up face-to-face with him," she says.

In fact, Susann Porter by no means welcomed the collapse of the socialist state. She felt the country had sold out to the wealthy West, and the passage of time has done little to change her mind.

"Many of the people who demonstrated back then are unemployed today," she says bitterly. "They might be free to travel, but they can't afford to."

But Susann Porter is well aware that East Germany had many flaws.

"What went on wasn't healthy," she says emphatically. "It could never have worked." She might still believe that East Germany provided a greater degree of social security, but she certainly wouldn't want to turn the clock back.

And the fall of the Berlin wall changed her life forever. If it hadn't happened she would never have met her husband, a musician. "He was English, and he would never have been allowed to play in communist East Germany."

Changing priorities

She and her husband Andrew Porter's 'dark wave' band "Love is Colder Than Death" - better known as LICTD - made a name for itself as a neo-classical/neo-medieval band, blending folk and New Age elements with synthesizer. They toured extensively over the years, both at home and abroad.

But in 1996, Susann put music on the backburner when her daughter Emily was born.

She's been a single mother for the last seven years, but music hasn't wholly disappeared from her life.

"I can't go very long without it," she laughs. She and her band are about to release a new CD, but she has no illusions about a career in the music business.

That's why she's currently training as a nurse for the elderly. It's tough work, and her shift begins every day at 6am.

Susann Porter has done all sorts of work over the years: In the former East Germany she was a professional horse rider, and she's also been an assistant in an animal hospital and a florist. These days, she enjoys helping elderly people. Susann Porter passionately believes that the elderly have a right to dignity in their twilight years.

Author: Mirra Banchon-Ramirez (jp)
Editor: Rina Goldenberg