Women's Portraits

Hermione Stiedl

Hermione Stiedl is 91 years old and lives in a residential home for seniors in Vienna. Owing to macula degeneration she has largely lost her eyesight and she must use a walking frame. But during the interview we note that before us sits a woman with an active brain who speaks about her eventful life.

Herta: Where were you born, do you have brothers and sisters and who were your parents?

Hermione: I was born in 1921 in Vienna. I have no brothers and sisters, I don’t know why? My father was all times very thrifty. He worked as a tramway employee. Later on he was an inspector under the “black party”. (A synonym for the Christian Democratic Party in Austria) Referring to the unemployment during the years of 1930 she said: “My father was never unemployed and we were never doing badly.”

Herta: What was your profession?

Hermione: I was a qualified nurse for X-raying and physiotherapy.

Herta: You changed several times your religious denomination. How did it happen?

Hermione: Only later on after the war I became more interested in religion. During the war years I went down a bit as to morality I had some relations with married men. But suddenly I found out that this was no orderly life and in line with my impulsive character I changed life completely by becoming a nun in the order of Carmelites in Gmunden (Austria). I had been a good nun during 16 years, I worked a lot in the garden and in agriculture and was quite satisfied. 

But some day my parents came to visit me and my father said: “We are old now, what will become of us?”  I said spontaneously: “Papa, I will come home to you”. I prepared everything secretly and my father found a workplace for me in a hospital and I left the order.

Herta: I know that you also joined for some time the Orthodox Church?

Hermione: I was very fond of the Russians (Soviet citizens), I also had a Russian friend. This was my motivation to go to the Orthodox.

But one day I heard the speech of a theologian lady – Ute Ranke-Heinemann. This speech gave me the impetus to change my life radically. She said: “You can pray to God, you can worship him, you can swear at him but you cannot eat God.”  Finally the problems I had had with the Eucharist seemed to be solved. The word of God has become a book for me and this is the Koran. I started at once to learn Arabic (with 65 years). I visited my friend in Dubai who had married an Arab. There I converted to the Islam with everything which belongs to it.

I am now a “white raven” under……. (She was distracted but we can imagine what she wanted to say.      

Herta: How can you live your Muslim faith in the residential home?

Hermione: I have no contact with the “Umma” the Muslim society in Austria. It is possible, I said that I will not eat any pork meat and Muslim women usually are praying at home. I have everything in my room, my CDs, a recorder with a clock that switches on the times of prayer. I pray five times a day. But I have also great sympathy for the Jews.

Herta: How do you spend your days?

Hermione: I am and always was an early riser. According to the seasons and to the position of the sun I get up at the automatic alarm call. That is 6 o’clock in winter and in summer between two and three o’clock. Then I put on my liturgical robe – the Abaya – and switch on the CD for the prayer call. Afterwards I take breakfast and watch TV (I can only hear it). 

(Ms. Willie brings a glass of water because the long speaking is tiring)

I have everything here, only the problem with the eyes is terrible for a bookworm like me. Now I have to content myself with talking books. Another problem is the walking frame which I need as support for walking.

Gerti: In spite of your 90 years you are so active mentally. Do you have an advice for us?

Hermione: We have here best nursing staff and a lot of entertainment. On Wednesday there is memory training. They take care that the old people don’t roost like hens awaiting the meals. I was always in good health and didn’t have operations like other people. My father also died at 93.

(We noticed that during the interview she never spoke of her mother.)

Willie (librarian): Tell us about your voyages…?

Hermione: Oh, they cost me much money because I always booked extra flights. I always wanted to be independent and didn’t like arranged voyages. To be able to afford the flight to Alaska I stopped smoking. Simply from one day to the other.

We ask her how many languages she knows: Latin and French, Greek, Russian and Arabic. But we see that Hermione gets tired from her reminiscences and we thank her for the interview.

Interview: Herta Spitaler Videocamera: Gerti Zupanich