Germans marry off foster daughter at Kumarakom

Thiruvananthapuram: German couple Alfred Schmidt and Anne Marie Schmidt’s tryst with Kumarakom has borne fruit. Their foster daughter Tintu on Saturday tied the knot with her friend, Manu from Delhi, at Sreekumaramangalam temple at Kumarakom.

The Schmidts have been visiting the village for 21 years to see Tintu, who stole their hearts when she offered them a flower at the local temple festival in 1994. Alfred, who was bowled over by her gesture, did not have anything to give the seventh grader in return except his business card.

She wrote to him later, inviting them home the next time they visited India. They came, visited her humble thatched house, but never left her to fend for herself.  They funded her education. She now works as a nurse in Delhi and speaks excellent German.

Each year when the German couple visited Kumarakom, they stayed at the Coconut Lagoon.

But when Tintu invited them to her thatched home long ago, they were caught off-guard seeing the dilapidated state of the house.

“The couple couldn’t sleep that night at their suite which then cost Rs 16, 000 per night. When they visited Tintu’s humble abode, they could see 1000 stars where her bedroom was not even half the size of their dining table,” P. Subramanian, general manager of Coconut Lagoon, told DC.

They entrusted him to do the renovation and by next year they were happy to see a small but beautiful house for Tintu and her family. Her father Thankachan works in the fishing sector while mother Kairali is a housewife.

Like any other Malayali Hindu marriage, the German couple had a sumptuous sadya with the local people.

“We were caught off-guard when we saw the Schmidts crying as if they were her biological parents when Tintu left in the groom’s car to Kottayam. The sweetness of the bond between Tintu and them is that she and her family have never tried to take advantage of the couple,” said K. Sreekumar, assistant general manager of Coconut Lagoon.