My children and grandchildren had the idea we could celebrate my 80th birthday at Sussex Inlet. We always loved to go to this place. Peter, I and the children have such lovely memories about it and often talk about it. I have stored some memories about Sussex Inlet in three of my ‘Pages’. Today I opened Sussex Inlet Page’I’. I thought, maybe some other bloggers might want to have a look too. So I copied one of the photos and the text to the first page. (I noticed nobody had actually looked at this page so far!)
As I said I copied only one of the photos. If you look at this post and would like to see some more photos, then please go to the above mentioned post in my pages about Sussex Inlet. There are many more photos to be seen in that page and two more pages about Sussex Inlet.
Uta with daughter Caroline and grandsons Ryan and Troy (the twins!). It was a wet morning.
This was our first time at Sussex Inlet. Caroline was six and the twins were still five. The rain lasted only for one day. After this we had beautiful summer weather again. When our son Martin came to visit with his wife Elizabeth the Inlet looked gorgeous in lovely sunshine.
It was March 1985 and in July Martin and Elizabeth had their first child, a boy named Tristan. After daughter Monika’s twins, Tristan was to be our third grandchild. (The following grandchildren were all girls. Monika’s three girls and Martin’s two girls. So we have eight grandchildren ; the last one of them was born in 1997. In the meantime we are also blessed with three great-grandchildren. )
After having experienced Sussex Inlet for the first time in 1985 we went back there lots of times. The children and grandchildren always loved it. Only our first born child, daughter Gabriele, was never able to join us at Sussex Inlet because she needed an Iron Lung for the night to sleep in.
We were happy that our youngest daughter had the company of the twins. The three of them did get on very well together. When people saw us with the three of them, they often thought they were triplets! The twins would ring their mum from a public phone near the office of the camp-site. The place was still called a ‘camp’ but it had newly built units which could accommodate up to eight people each.
In March 1985 the unit we were in had only just been built. Everything looked brand new. The best thing about Sussex Inlet was that it was very secluded. We called it our little paradise.
Today we visited the Concordia Club. It was still quite warm as though the summer did not want to leave us yet. We did meet our family at the club for lunch.
There were our two daughters and our son with their partners, as well as our twin grandsons. One of them was there with partner and beautiful son, who is our great-grandson!Also one of our grand-daughters, who turns seventeen early next month, was also there.
Lucas, our little great grandson soon found company on the lawns in front of the club and kept tirelessly running around.
We had great fun watching the kids from where we were sitting down for lunch.
This is a passport photo of my mother Charlotte before she got sick. We do not know for sure, but she may have suffered a certain kind of memory loss later on.A few Years later another Passport-Photo was taken of her.
We did fly BRITISH AIRWAYS in 1994. We departed London/Heathrow Airport on Saturday, 19th of November at 12.45 and arrived at Tegel Airport/Berlin less than an hour later.
We moved in with my brother Peter Uwe who lived at the time with our mother in a spacious apartment in Berlin-Charlottenburg. For about ten days we stayed there and of course saw Charlotte every day. Once every day a woman would arrive to see after Charlotte’s personal needs. Peter Uwe was still a teacher and had to leave his mother on her own during the day.
Towards the end of November we left Berlin in a rental car. We had planned on going again to Windischgarsten, Austria, where Peter’s sister Eva lives with her husband Harald.
Our tour down south led us first of all to Wittenberg for a break at lunchtime. There was a Christmas Fair (Weihnachtsmarkt).I remember we were able to buy there delicious freshly baked potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer). A bit further on we noticed to our delight at some building our Australian flag! There happened to be an exhibition in that building about Australian aborigines.
From Wittenberg we went on to Radebeul near Dresden. This is were famous author Karl May had lived. We knew that they had a Karl May Museum in this town. So we went there for a visit. It brought back to me old memories about the noble Winnetou and his friend Old Shatterhand. Soon it was nighttime and we booked into a small hotel at Radebeul.
The following day we spent visiting Dresden. The Frauenkirche was still in ruins. Money was raised for its restoration. This is where I got my Swiss watch. The proceeds of this purchase helped towards the restoration of the church! There was a lovely Weihnachtsmarkt in Dresden too where we bought some food at lunchtime.
Our next overnight stay was in a hotel in Bad Schandau, a pleasant little spa town at the Elbe River near the Czech border. We took a walk through a wooded area and actually reached the Czech border!
I took this picture of Peter and Caroline where it said that this is the Czech border!
Well, we had not planned to take a direct tour to Austria. We first wanted to see on the way a bit of Germany . During the 1990s we did not have mobile phones. I guess we could have stayed in touch with Berlin or sister Eva via a hotel telephone. But we only rang Eva when we reached Trockau in Bavaria. It was 2 pm on the 2nd of December (I made a note of it!) Peter talked to his sister Eva, wanting to give her an indication when we might arrive at her place. “Did you ring Berlin yet?” she asked. “No, why?” And then Eva said to ring straight away. “Yesterday Uta’s mother has had a stroke and is in hospital!”
(My brother Peter Uwe had been ringing Peter’s sister Ilse who had been ringing her sister Eva.)
We did ring Berlin then of course and said to my brother we would straight away come to Berlin. We reached Berlin late at night. Peter Uwe was waiting for us and went with us to the hospital. My mother did not recover and died during the night from the 21st to the 22nd of December.
On the 13th of January 1995 we were back in Australia. My mother was to be cremated. Only there was a severe backlog at the time. The cremation could only be done well into February. And the funeral service could only be held after the cremation. Well, this was the German way of doing it. It upset me terribly. Yes, this was very difficult for me.
Peter Uwe, my brother, had been living separated from Klaudia, his wife, for some time. Peter Uwe had a new partner already. Her name is Astrid. At the time Klaudia and Astrid did not like each other, not at all. But over the years this has changed. I think they are at ease with each other now whenever they happen to meet. Peter Uwe and Klaudia have a daughter, Corinna, who was at my mum’s funeral, also Klaudia and of course Peter Uwe. Astrid was not there. Just two more people were there: Our cousin Wolfgang and his wife Gisela.
These are the five people who were at my mum’s funeral.This building is at the entrance to the cemetary (Städtischer Friedhof Schöneberg)
I guess the funeral service would have been held in there. We took the above picture in 2010 when Klaudia had the idea to show us the spot where Mum’s urn is buried anonymously amongst other urns on a beautiful lawn. The following pictures are the ones Peter Uwe sent us from the day of the funeral.
This stone we recognised in 2010 when Klaudia showed us the cemetery. Where these flowers are from the day of the funeral is presumably where Mum’s urn was buried.And here is the stone we saw in 2010.
When I published recently a blog about our adventures with the 2CV, Catterel made the following comment: “I love how certain makes of car can trigger memories – I once had a boyfriend in France, with this kind of 2CV. Canvas seats suspended from metal frames, like beach chairs! But we squeezed half a dozen students into it – don’t ask me how!”
I answered as follows:
“In the sixties we had a Volkswagen Beetle. Our friends, Karl and Marianne, had no car. So we invited them to come with us for an excursion. They had two children, a boy and a girl,, and we had two children the same age (Gaby was in long time hospital care already). Four adults and four children, we all fitted into this small VW. Seatbelts were not compulsory yet at this time. I think the children were between 4 years and 6 years, two girls and two boys. Behind the back seats there was room for two children, right under the back window of the car. I was the only one with a driver’s license at the time. So I was the driver!”
Our 2CV one morning in April 1990 near Ober-Ammergau
Today I discovered some more pictures with our 2CV that I had not published yet. This is why I include them in this reblog. We went with the 2CV from Austria to Berlin as I mentioned before. In Berlin we went in it to an outer suburb where cousin Ingrid and her husband Erhard own a little garden plot with a small cottage which they like to stay in during summer. They always love to invite us for a visit when we are in Berlin.
Cousin Ingrid holds onto her bike. The 2CV is already parked behind the gate, Erhard is to the left of the car, I can be seen on the right side.Here Caroline is trying out Ingrid’s bike/Doesn’t our 2CV look great surrounded by Ingrid’s garden? I think you can see where the side-flap on the side window in the front opens up!
In Singapore we went to the Zoological Gardens. Peter and Caroline had breakfast with an Orangutan.
This is a picture that Caroline took at Sydney Airport before our Departure.
Gaby had come with David. Also Monika was there to farewell us. This was 24 years ago, meaning that none of Monika’s girls had been born yet, but Monika had of course already Troy and Ryan. They were ten at the time.
Here, Caroline is in the picture too, meaning we are to be seen here with all three daughters!
In In Singapore we went to this Chapel.
We also went on a temple tour
Our Hotel had a Swimming Pool at the Top of the building.
This was the View from the Top of the Building.
I enjoyed our Stay in Singapore.
After Singapore our next destination was Paris. I already mentioned in Part One that we picked up a…
We moved into our new home in September 1994. A few weeks later we had a burglary. I was so upset I wanted to cancel our planned trip to Berlin. A very understanding doctor managed to calm me down with some hypnosis treatment. So in November we went as planned to Sydney Airport for our departure which led us first of all to another stop over at Singapore.
The following pictures show that our family came to the airport to farewell us. I find these pictures very interesting for our family. They show our grandchildren what they looked like nearly twenty years ago!
I noticed that all four of our children and all six of our grandchildren that we had at the time, are to be seen in the photos! Also Gaby’s carer David and our daughter-in-law.
In this picture Peter and I are with all our four children. Daughter Caroline stands next to Peter. All five children of daughter Monika are in the picture too! Her very tall twin sons are eighteen, her two little daughters in the front are Natasha and Roxanne. Well, this was more than sixteen years ago!
This picture was taken at the beginning of September 1997, a few days after our daughter Gaby’s 40th birthday! We all met for a picnic lunch at Central Park in Merrylands near Gaby’s and David’s home. David, Gaby’s carer, stands in the middle of the photo behind Gaby’s wheelchair. Our son Martin (who’s holding onto the wheelchair) lived in Newcastle at the time and had come to Sydney to see us all. Merrylands is a Western Suburb of Sydney. The Central Park there is a very popular recreational place.
Our daughter Monika holds Krystal, her five months old baby daughter. Gaby and Martin are in the picture too.
In the picture below Troy, who is one of the twins, walks with his girlfriend.
Ryan, the other twin, as well as Caroline, Martin and David presumably walked ahead.
However one of them must have taken this picture, right? Maybe Caroline?
After our picnic lunch we all walked right through the park towards the little waterfall. It looks like at the time there was still quite a bit of water to be seen. Sadly, after a few years without much rain, there was no water left in this area. When we took a picture there two years ago, everything looked completely dry. Maybe in the meantime the water situation has improved somewhat. We should go there one day and have a look.
Here we are with Monika’s daughter Natasha on that day in early September 1997.
It was a good weekend. We had the family visiting with little Lucas. And we received the great news, that in September Lucas is going to have a little sister or brother. How exciting this is for the whole family!
Caroline and Matthew arrived yesterday at lunchtime. This afternoon they left again to go back to Sydney. Yesterday we had Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad) and Bouletten (Berlin Meat Patties) for lunch. Caroline did bring some cake which she had baked herself. We had this yesterday for afternoon coffee when Monika came with Mark as well as Troy and Ryan who did bring little Lucas along. Ebony, the newly expectant mum, had stayed at home to have a little bit of a rest.
This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2014
Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I went for a bit of Supper to the AGA (Australian German Austrian) Club.
L, our 82 year old neighbour passed away last Friday and today, Thursday, was the Funeral Service. L had been born in Hungary in 1931. He fled Hungary after the uprising in 1956 and arrived in Australia in 1957. Four years later his wife followed him to Australia. They have two sons and four grandchildren. They also have a great number of friends, quite a few of Hungarian descent. Today more than a hundred people were gathered for L’s funeral service.
ORDER OF SERVICE
Prelude Music: Moonlight Serenade – Glen Miller
Welcome by the Celebrant
“Do not stand at my Grave and Weep” a poem read by L’s eldest grand-daughter, who was quite weepy
Memories, told by L’s elder son, some of them were quite humorous
L’s Life in Pictures with Music: The Wind beneath my Wings – Bette Midler
Floral Tributes by the Family Members to say good-bye
THE LORD’S PRAYER, said by the whole congregation
FAREWELL, the coffin disappears behind a curtain
POEM: Miss me but let me go, said by the Celebrant
CLOSING MUSIC: A Hungarian Piece of Music
When the Prelude Music was played, the immediate family of L came along the aisle to take their seats in the front. The wife of L is a dear friend of mine. She was escorted by her two very tall sons as she came in. The Moonlight Serenade sounded so beautiful. Seeing my friend in the midst of her sons, looking very small beside her sons, I felt very teary. I imagined what pain she must feel.
The beauty of the music I think contributed to the feeling of sadness. However, at an occasion like this it is quite all right to feel great sadness. As it said later on in the poem: Miss me but let me go!
Peter asked me later on, whether I would like to have a funeral service at the Catholic Church. I thought about it and came to the conclusion, that a service similar to the one L had would really be perfectly all right for me. I have only one close Catholic friend I can think of, who would come to my funeral. Everybody else who would come is not Catholic. I am the only one in my family who is a Catholic! So what is the point in me having a Catholic Service? It does not make much sense, does it? I have never seen this as clearly as today.
AuntyUta 