Irmi's cousin

Gerlingen, Germany  (2002)

Ulrike Scharna  (1962-2004)

Ulrike, pictured above with son David, was born in the southern German city of Stuttgart.  After completing primary and

secondary schooling in her hometown of Gerlingen, she enrolled at the same teachers' college in nearby Reutlingen as

had her older cousins, Marion and Irmhild.  Like Marion and Irmhild, Ulrike initially aspired to be a teacher but changed

her major to library science at the outset of her third year.  Following graduation, she lived for a year in Italy, improving

her understanding of the language and culture.  Returning to Reutlingen, Ulrike entered into a three-year apprenticeship

program with the library system there.  Having successfully completed that, she secured a full-time position as a staff

librarian at the city's main library.  Three years later, in March 1996, Ulrike gave birth to a son, David.  The next year, at

the age of thirty-five, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Ulrike fought the cancer hard, submitting to two surgeries

and numerous rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.  The treatments beat back the cancer, and, for several years, it

went into remission, and Ulrike returned to a relatively normal lifestyle; however, the disease eventually reappeared and

began to spread.  After battling for seven long years, Ulrike finally succumbed in November 2004.