The caregiver of a 93-year-old woman who starred in a variety of stage shows is hoping to fulfill her dying wish of finding the child actress she worked with in a 1960 performance of "The King and I."
Eileen Thomas asked about Karin Rother, who would be in her 60s now, on a daily basis, according to her caregiver Paul Abbott, 65, who lives in the town of Middleton, near Manchester in central England.
Thomas played alongside Rother at the Palace Theatre in Manchester in the play "The King and I," in 1960, when the latter was a young child, according to Abbott and his family.
She then went on to become a well-known German singer as a child, performing "Polly Wolly Holiday" with German musician and actor Bully Buhlan (1924–1982), which was released in 1963.
Rother used to live on Inkerman Street, according to Abbott and his family. They said that the street still exists but there are no houses on it, adding that while in the United Kingdom, Rother attended St. Oswald's Church of England parish in Collyhurst.
But sadly, however, they said this school has been closed since 1980.
Rother eventually moved to Germany around 1960 – it is still unclear if she was born in the U.K. or in Germany – and she would send Eileen postcards from Berlin.
But eventually, contact was lost. It was Thomas' wish, before she died, to have contact with Rother again. She recorded a touching video before her death, telling Rother how much she would like to see her again.
And so Abbott tried to find her, to fulfill Thomas' dying wish of tracking down the young child star she had known all those years ago.
However, without Rother's date of birth, searches for her in Germany with the Berlin Residents' Registration Office proved fruitless. In the end, it was not meant to be and Thomas passed away.
But this has not deterred Abbott, who is keen to fulfill Thomas' dying wish of finding Rother, if only so that she can know how much she meant to Thomas.
Speaking to Zenger News in an exclusive interview, Abbott said that Thomas had been "the leading lady in about 54 shows from around 16 years of age."
He added: "In this part of the northwest, she was very well known. So music really was her life and towards the end of her life, she was really quite desperate to get in touch with Karin, who was close to her heart. She met her when Karin must have been somewhere between 3 and 8."
Eileen Thomas passed away February 3 at the age of 93 and was cremated March 18, 2022, following a service at Manchester Cathedral.
Anyone with information about Karin Rother can contact Paul Abbott at jacabbott13@icloud.com.
This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.
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