This was written as part of a prompt from my TSOM Forum, on the topic of Domestic Life. We had all pretty much agreed that Frau Schmidt needed way more credit than she gets, so this is the result.

Her father had been a sea captain, too. She supposed it was one of the reasons she had stayed with the von Trapp family as long as she had. It certainly wasn't money. If she wanted more money, she would have left this family long ago. But the fact that her employer was exactly the same as her father had helped her connect with these children in a way no one else could.

Consequently she had seen this family through everything; their greatest triumphs and their greatest sorrows. She'd seen the Captain and his wife through the first few blissful years of their marriage and then the overwhelming joy with the birth of their first child...and the six that followed her. She'd seen the entire household struggle when little Liesl caught scarlet fever and then the relief everyone felt when she recovered, only for Louisa to catch the virus a short while later, and following her, Baroness von Trapp who had died within a month.

The children were lonely and miserable, but Louisa in particular was inconsolable; believing herself responsible for her mother's death, and as the Captain had been too broken-hearted, she had been the one who had comforted the poor child until she felt somewhat better. But she had never fully healed and she doubted she would ever be the same.

When the Captain began to get a grip on reality once more, he decided to hire a governess to look after the children full time since he knew Frau Schmidt couldn't keep up her housekeeping duties and look after seven unruly children. However it didn't make much difference as the children merely saw this as their father closing himself off further from them; making them automatically resent the governesses, who were turned out of the house almost instantly due to a variety of tricks played; spiders in Fraulein Hedwig's bed, glue on Fraulein Josephine's toothbrush, a snake in Fraulein Helga's pocket, switching Fraulein Rosa's shampoo with whipped cream and several other pranks. And, as soon as the governess left, Frau Schmidt was left to care for the children until their father found the next governess.

Around this time the Captain introduced a strict naval ritual for the entire household; forcing his children to dress in sailor suits and march about the grounds and the house, controlling them with a bosun's whistle. Even little Gretl. She was only three at the time. Frau Schmidt had often wondered if he started it as a punishment for the way they treated their governesses or if it was the only way he knew how to cope.

Life went on like this for many years. The only things that indicated a passage of time were the aging of the children and the coming and going of the various governesses.

Things had started look up when Max had introduced the Captain to one of his high-society friends; Baroness Elsa Schrader. From then on it seemed like the Captain had a purpose in life, although, to Frau Schmidt's disappointment they did not include his children. As the Captain and the Baroness became closer he would often travel to Vienna and visit her, staying for rather long periods of time. Unfortunately this only seemed to upset the children even more.

Earlier this year the Captain seemed to be thinking very serious about asking the Baroness to become his bride. Frau Schmidt knew as soon as she found out that her employer would never love her like his first wife, but she supposed no harm could come from having a mother figure in the house. At least it would put an end to the governesses. Although, she had heard that the Baroness wasn't very fond of children and with the Captain's children being who they were, she couldn't help being a little apprehensive.

So after nineteen years of working in the von Trapp villa, Frau Schmidt had thought she couldn't possibly see any more. But as soon as Fraulein Maria stepped into the house she had been proved wrong. She'd never seen anything like Fraulein Maria, who was so unlike all the previous governesses; a naive young women, fresh from the convent of all places. If she hadn't been informed prior to meeting her, Frau Schmidt would never have guessed that she was a postulant; she was so vivacious and full of life.

Exactly what the von Trapp family needed.