Danuta Termin has lived in Görlitz since 1994. When she talks about her story, it sounds like the perfect script for a happy life. She sums up her journey from Upper Silesia in Poland to Görlitz: “Görlitz offered us a new perspective and many opportunities and we seized them. Where there’s a will, many things are possible.”
First, a solution had to be found to keep her relationship going. Her boyfriend had found a promising job in Frankfurt am Main and it was clear that a long-distance relationship could only be a temporary solution. They both had family in western Germany, but of course, also in Poland. Görlitz offered itself as an ideal location between both sides of the family. After her husband found a construction job in Görlitz, they both decided to move to the Neisse city together. Arriving in Görlitz sounds like a walk in the park when Danuta Termin tells the story: making new friends, learning a new language, it’s all been no problem. Danuta soon became pregnant and the child was born in Görlitz. Friends and members of their church community helped them find a place in a daycare center and later a kindergarten. She was then able to complete a one-year internship at the Carolus Hospital, primarily to learn the German language. Her colleagues were a big help to her. At the same time, she managed to have her previous training as a nurse recognized in Germany, and so the internship was followed by a job: first in the surgical outpatient clinic, and from 1998 in the newly established emergency outpatient clinic, where she still works today. During the pandemic, Danuta Termin completed advanced training as an emergency nurse in her department. She looks back on this qualification with a palpable sense of pride, “That was a unique challenge, especially because of the German language.”
What makes them happy in Görlitz? The quality of life, the many excursion destinations in the nearby region, the existing infrastructure, especially for a family with two children. She really appreciates the general coziness, precisely because she hasn’t forgotten how hectic things could be where she grew up. And then she raves about how much culture and history Görlitz has to offer and how nice it is to have become a part of that history. In 2005 she and her husband, now in the real estate business, purchased an apartment building dating back to 1860. Although it took until 2009 for the first tenants to be able to move in, she adds “still, it’s an incredible feeling to help contribute to making Görlitz shine again, so to speak!”
What makes her particularly happy today? Having a wonderful job, being able to enjoy nature at Berzdorf Lake and, above all, having two older children who both want to stay in Görlitz – the elder daughter is already working as a nurse in a doctor’s office, the younger one is training as an electronics technician for industrial engineering in Görlitz. And there’s one thing she would like to mention: how nice it is to see how German and Polish families live next to or with each other. That, too, was not as easy or natural in the early nineties as it is today.
And what’s on the agenda at the moment? “It definitely won’t be boring here,” Danuta answers. The family has started a second real estate project including renovation. When asked if she could imagine returning to Poland or moving elsewhere, she answers immediately, “Absolutely not, I don’t regret anything and I don’t miss anything here.” It’s clear from the look on her face, Görlitz makes you happy!
Story, video & photos: DIE PARTNER
This project has received funding from tax resources on the basis of the budget adopted by the members of the Parliament of the Free State of Saxony.
