The following article was made possible because of the coopération obtained from Pascale Coulin, granddaughter of "MA Heméring" and Bertrand Coulin to whom she has been married since 22 July 2000.
Unfortunately, Pascale who was born in 1975, never knew her grandmother. However, as a result of a visit to this web site which clearly indicated that "MA Heméring" was a favorite of the Canadian Air Force servicemen stationed at 2 (F) Wing, Grostenquin, France, Pascale e-mailed Ren L'Ecuyer requesting information from Canadians who had at one time or another known her grandmother.
As a result of this initial contact, needless to add that for the benefit of those who knew "MA", Ren was interested in getting the latest detail concerning "MA Hemering" and her family. He contacted me to assist and I communicated with Pascale Coulin who supplied the following details.
Joséphine SCHMALTZ, referred by all as "MA Heméring, the beloved acquaintance of Canadian servicemen from RCAF Station Grostenquin, France was born the day before Christmas in 1910. She married Charles KLEIN in 1936, a widower who had a daughter named Yvette, born in 1933.
From their union, Joséphine and Charles had four (4) children as indicated hereunder:
1 - Charles (known as Charlot) born in 1939:
He married Irène CLÉMENT and they had five (5) children.
2 - Eugène born in 1940
He married Marie-Thérèse HOERTH and they also had (5) children.
3 - Marguerite born in 1942
She is the mother of Pascale who supplied this information. She married Bernard THOMAS and they had three (3) daughters.
4 - Yves born in 1952
He married Marie Louise THILL and they had a daughter and a son.
Yvette born in 1933 (from Charles' previous marriage) - Deceased 11 March 2003
She married Fernand WOH and they had six (6) children.
"MA Heméring's Café" was in fact closed in 1967 but in order to keep the licence (legal papers to operate the business), Pascale's mother (Marguerite) continued to operate the Café on a three (3) days a year basis until 1972. Afterwards, because of all the renovations required in order to meet the proper standards, noboby in the family was interested to take over the Café and it was then formally closed.
MA's husband (Charles) died on 4 November 1968 and MA followed him on 19 February 1970 after four (4) months of illness.
Their son, Yves, took over the place and he made it a residential home. He kept it until approximately 1989 and it was then sold to Jean-Louis WOH, son of Yvette, who is still residing there.
As for the photographs of the servicemen which were displayed on the different walls of the Café, they apparently disappeared at the same time of the Café, when the place became Yves' résidence.
Pascale lived with her family in Longeville-les-Saint-Avold until 1985 and her father was a Gendarme. He requested and obtained a posting to his original (département) locality, named la Haute-Saône, where Pascale and Bertrand are also residing.
I wish to thank Pascale and Bertrand for making this detail available for our web site. "Merci beaucoup".Lucien St-Hilaire
This page is located at
http://www.grostenquin.org/other/gtother-424.html
Updated: March 13, 2003