The Foreign Residents in the TRNC
30 minutes with the Secretary
by Ralph Kratzer
Ruth Reiter
The 5th intervie
w in my series of talks with members of The Foreign Residents in the TRNC I had last Sunday with a German lady, Mrs. Ruth Reiter.
We met at the recently opened “The Cacao Lounge” in Girne, a recommendable place if you are a lover of ice cream, cakes, coffee with cream and all that stuff making your hips a little bit rounder!
About Ruth´s life:
It was in June 1947 when Ruth was born or in her words “when she came out of the frog pond”.
Her place of birth was Niebüll, Germany, on the
coast of the North Sea near to the border to Denmark. Her family was originally from Königsberg in the former German area of Eastern Prussia, since the end of world war II it has belonged to Russia and has been named Kaliningrad since then. In the turmoil of war her mother had to flee by ship over the Baltic Sea with her seven children. The refugee ship was sunk and Ruth´s mother arrived in Niebüll with only two of her children, the other brothers and sisters did not 
survive the horrific incident. Ruth was then born as the straggler of the family after her father, who had been Russian prisoner of war, was released and came back to be re-united with his family.
Ruth went to school in the family´s new hometown and had an apprenticeship in the district administration of Niebüll before she decided to go to Hamburg aged nearly 18. There she met a young man who later became her husband and father of her two sons.
In Hamburg she underwent education for the 
profession of a secretary and after being divorced from her husband in the early 1980´s, she started her career as Chief Secretary for different German and international corporations, and she continued with this career for 35 years.
18 years ago, Ruth came to Cyprus the first time for a holiday, with her then boyfriend Manfred, staying at the Riviera Holiday Village in Karaoğlanoğlu. They both fell in love with North Cyprus and so it happened that during the following years they came back to the island at least twice a year.
One year they went on a bicycle tour from Kyrenia to the Karpaz Peninsula and 
Ruth thought it was fantastic. Having always planned in her life to settle down in the Mediterranean area one day, she started to calculate while she was cycling and came to the final decision to look for a piece of land in Esentepe. The plot was then purchased in 1998 and she started building the house using her own resources, which would be finished 4 years later.
When she was given the opportunity of early retirement, Ruth took this chance and has now lived permanently in North Cyprus for 7 years.
Both of her sons, who are now aged 41 and 45, and four grandchildren, all live in Germany.
Being asked about her ways of passing the time, Ruth answered that first of all she is spending a lot of time with her lovable dog “Nele” which she got out of the Kyrenia Animal Rescue Centre. Other pastimes are reading books, list
ening to music, looking after her garden and house and practising Iyengar-Yoga which she has done for more than 4 years now and which has became a philosophy of life for her.
Although having had, and is still having, huge problems with her house over here, Ruth cannot imagine leaving North Cyprus any more. This lady seems to be a real fighter.
Good luck for the future, Ruth!
