Published on Jul 25, 2012
A selection of photos from the life of Gaby Hannemann 1957 – 2012. A tribute to a courageous person who was an inspiration to all who knew her.
Every time, I, Uta, watch these photos and listen to the music, I become very emotional again. What a celebration of our daughter’s life! As Peter says, she was an inspiration to all who knew her. And she always cared for every one in our family. We are never going to forget her!
“Das verstehst du noch nicht, du bist ja noch so klein . . . ”
(This you cannot understand yet, you are still too young for this . . . )
This is one of my earliest memories about how Mum would have talked to me. However, Dad would never have talked to me like this. This is how I remember it anyhow. Dad always tried to explain everything to me.
When I was sixteen, I had the chance to meet my Dad for a few hours. He told me that Mum had divorced him . Didn’t she tell you this, he asked me. As a matter of fact, no, she had not bothered to let me know anything about the divorce! In the end I think I told myself that she probably meant well, that she just did not want me to get upset! Was I upset then? My word, I was. When I was young and still living with my mother, I could never adjust to the way Mum treated me. No matter how well she meant, she managed to upset me very, very often in lots of ways!
The same kind of being extremely upset I do experience when politicians in power deliberately keep things from the electorate or spread outright lies!!
The following is something I wrote in 2011:
“Thursdays I usually go to a class here in Dapto. It’s a gentle exercise class with Marta Venegas. This class is to improve core strength and balance. I like these classes. Marta always brings stimulating music along. She sees to it that we keep up with a bit of dancing and also some more serious fitness training. Some of the exercises can be done sitting or standing. This class is breaking up next week. The break lasts to the beginning of February! I must aim at going to the swimming pool more often to maintain some kind of fitness.”
This class is still going on Thursdays with Marta as instructor and I still love to go to these classes! Sadly a lot of people did drop out over the years without sufficient replacements. However I do hope that the class is going to continue next year. It would be a pity if it had to stop because of too few people attending regularly. We do have a break now that goes till the first Thursday in February. There is always a summer break like this for the class. I hope enough people are going to turn up in February so that the class can be continued!
Following is something I wrote in November 2007 and I published it in 2011. It sounds like I could have written it today.
“Time is running out? . . . how much time do I have left? With every year time seems to be getting more precious. Whatever I still want to do in life, I should be doing it soon, very soon. There is no need to panic. It is just this feeling in me that I ought not to waste time; in other words, I should make the best use of it I possibly can. Making time for reflections as I do right now, I do not regard this as a waste of time. It nourishes my soul, it makes me look forward to spend the day in a productive way. There are the Christmas preparations to consider. How can I keep them to a minimum with that special Christmas Spirit in mind? Some spiritual songs usually help me along to get into the mood. Even in shopping centres the odd Christmas song can bring about temporary elation, a feeling of peace and comfort in a buzzing shopping centre! And even if this sort of mood happens only for brief moments while doing the shopping , it is still appreciated and helps to cope with the mad commercialism that surrounds us everywhere.
The special food at Christmas I like very much. On the other hand I hate it, if food is being wasted. I rather have not too much food of everything. How awful, if food has to be thrown out because we cannot keep it fresh enough in the Australian heat once it leaves the fridge. There may be one and a half dozen people at our family gathering. People bring food along. I would like to keep the food that I am going to provide to a strict minimum. Unfortunately I know already that this is an impossibility at Christmas time! I suppose I’ll just have to grin and bear it. I am determined to make the most of the Christmas Spirit where-ever I may come across it and enjoy the closeness of family and friends. Indeed I am looking forward to a Joyful and Happy Christmas. I did not always feel joyful and happy at Christmas time: There are some happy memories about Christmas, but there are also some very unhappy ones . . . . May the truly happy hours at Christmas time be plentiful and greatly outnumber the sad and lonely hours! This is what I wish for everyone.
These posts from 2011 have the following titles:
Daddy’s Anger: https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/17/memories/
MY MOTHER: https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/17/out-of-last-years-files/
Post W W II: https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/11/reflections/
OUR LUCKY ESCAPE; https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/08/our-lucky-escape/
My Family’s Reaction https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/06/575/
https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/06/thirty-three-years-ago/
https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/05/utas-diary/
So the following is still something I did publish in Decermber of 2011:
“5th of December, our second daughter’s birthday; the youngest daughter’s birthday is coming up in four days. The two girls are exactly twenty years apart!
Tomorrow, Tuesday, is Thai Yoga for beginners with Chaija Noradechanunt from the University of Wollongong. In the pamphlet it says:
‘Enjoy stretches, breathing work and relaxation practices in a women only place.’
On Tuesday, the 13th December, is going to be the last class for this year.
I like these Thai Yoga classes. I hope they’re going to continue next year. For the Thai Yoga I go to Coniston, which is two trainstops away from where I live. The Older Women’s Network hire the Community Hall in Coniston for these classes. They say:
‘You’re in good company with Illawarra OWN Wellness Centre. What is a Wellness Centre?
A Wellness Centre provides older women with a different model of health and wellbeing. We offer a holistic approach to improving and maintaining health and coping with illness by providing a variety of choices for healthy living. The Wellness Centre provides an informal, friendly and supportive environment.
We are committed to:
. Flexible, “drop in” attendance
. Learning from each other, as well as from health professionals
. Consumer involvement & participation
‘Social isolation is a threat to the well being and health of us all. As women tend to live longer than men, they are more likely to feel isolated. Being on a limited income further restricts many people and decreases our ability to lead full and productive lives. To enjoy healthy senior years our minds and bodies need to be active and we need to do all we can to ensure we foster a willingness to stay well by keeping active.
An older woman is generally considered to be 50 years and over. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women aged 45 Years and over. All are welcome at the Wellnes Centre.’
Thursdays I usually go to a class here in Dapto. It’s a gentle exercise class with Marta Venegas. This class is to improve core strength and balance. I like these classes. Marta always brings stimulating music along. She sees to it that we keep up with a bit of dancing and also some more serious fitness training. Some of the exercises can be done sitting or standing. This class is breaking up next week. The break lasts to the beginning of February! I must aim at going to the swimming pool more often to maintain some kind of fitness.
My laptop is playing up sometimes. I think I need to take it for another service.”
https://www.valentinessourdough.com.au/our-story
“The Valentine’s artisan sourdough bakery and coffee shop operates out of three locations – Rutherglen, Albury and Wodonga.”
Recently Peter and I had a lunch break at Wodonga. We went to the Valentine’s coffee shop in Wodonga. The bread was very much to our liking. There were a variety of fresh healthy options to go with the bread. And the coffee was very good too.
We had been staying overnight in Gundagai and were on our way back home to Dapto. We were travelling in our ancient Audi. Peter’s driving went very well. He loves driving the Audi long distances. The Hume Motorway is not a bad road to drive on.
Friday, 23rd of November 2018
During the last few days we in the Illawarra have been hit somewhat too by this dust storm . However, today there does not seem to be any more dust in the air, even though we have extremely windy conditions. The elderly and people with breathing problems have been warned to stay indoors, avoid exercising and drink a lot of fluids.
Peter went out this morning for a little while. He says the air felt like freezing even though the thermometer showed a temperature of 15C. The forecast is that the wind should ease after midday.
We have just come back from a great few days away from home. I found our trip was very relaxing, and we did quite a few things that are worth remembering. It is always good to be able to go away for a little while. This creates memories.
Both Peter and I are in our eighties. That we still enjoy doing a bit of travelling, I find remarkable. Peter is battling to maintain some normality to his life while old age and sickness diminish his fitness. The one thing he is still pretty good at, is driving a car. He says driving a car on good roads for certain distances he finds relaxing. Our old Audi goes well on highways. In towns where there are a lot of traffic lights, Peter has to stop the car too often. This is when the car uses a lot of petrol pro km. However on freeways and highways the car uses much, much less petrol, and this makes Peter very happy and joyful to not have to stop all the time. However, Peter being 83 and having a few health issues that can make him feel perhaps too tired after a longer drive, he agreed not to drive the 650 km to Benalla in one day, but rather to stay overnight somewhere, that is at about the halfway point. This time we came up with the idea to stop at Gundagai for our overnight stays. This worked out very well. I wrote here that we stayed at the “Gundagai Motel”:
https://auntielive.wordpress.com/
After our one night’s stay at Gundagai we stayed at our son’s place at Benalla for three nights. And on the way back we stayed again for one night at Gundagai. This means we left home on a Friday morning and arrived back home on a Wednesday afternoon. So this makes it close to one week! I reckon we did very well, considering our age and Peter’s health problems. And of course I too have sometimes a few minor health problems related to old age!
Peter is booked in for some more treatment in the hospital. We hope the result of these treatments is going to be as good as possible so that perhaps in future we are still going to be able to do similar beautiful trips!
