It was last week when Friederike Hubauer-Furtmayr picked up the phone and called the OÖNachrichten. The 103-year-old from Linz was so happy about the “Tombola of Appreciation” initiated by the OÖN for the nursing staff in Upper Austria’s hospitals that she wanted to communicate it personally.
She too wanted to express her appreciation to the nurses and doctors who worked so hard in the corona crisis, says Hubauer-Furtmayr. We are happy to fulfill your request. “During my own hospital stays, I have seen how committed the staff is even in normal times. And what is currently being done in the hospitals impresses me deeply,” says Hubauer-Furtmayr. “I just want to say thank you.”
In 1918, the year Friederike Hubauer-Furtmayr was born, a pandemic also kept the world in check: the Spanish flu. The hospitals were hopelessly overloaded – also due to the end of the world war – and many sick and wounded could not be cared for.
This had serious consequences for Friederike Hubauer-Furtmayr’s father: When little Friederike was born on October 28, 1918 in the family’s home in Kirchberg-Thening, her father, who was seriously ill with lungs, was dying in the next bed. “He may have heard my screams when I was born, and he died two days later,” says the pensioner.
In the interwar years, Friederike Hubauer-Furthmayr and two siblings grew up with her mother, who moved from farm to farm as a tailor. When she was six years old, her mother sent her to Linz to attend the Kreuzschwestern school there.
After elementary school, her uncle, who ran a dairy, took Hubauer-Furtmayr to live with him. From then on she worked alongside school. “I had to get up at half past four and deliver milk. Then I went to school, deliver milk again during the lunch break, then to afternoon class. In the evening I had to do my homework.”
Despite the circumstances, Hubauer-Furtmayr was a good student. “My uncle noticed that I got very good grades and often helped me.” At 14, she had to leave school – at the request of his uncle’s wife. That is why Hubauer took care of her own further education.
After secondary school, she worked in her uncle’s dairy – and took on more and more responsibility until she finally became managing director of the central dairy in Furtmayr in 1957. “During that time, I was the only woman in the industry. I was surrounded by men, all of them Boku graduates,” she says with a laugh. Hubauer-Furtmayr was not intimidated by this. “I have built a state-of-the-art dairy in Gmunden.” Three mergers with cooperative dairies fell under Hubauer-Furtmayr’s aegis. The creation of the “Almliesl” brand, which still exists today, also took place under her leadership. “If I may say that, we were at the top in our field at the time.”
Today she often receives visits from her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “I’m very happy every time, but I have to manage my energy.” She knows from her own experience how important and valuable the work of carers is. “That made me report.”
Donation to the OÖN Christkind
Actually, Friederike Hubauer-Furtmayr also wanted to donate money for the raffle. Because the OÖN are only giving away prizes in kind, they are now donating this donation to the OÖN Christkindl, which supports families in need through no fault of their own.
Source: Nachrichten
