There were about 60 plus guests at the party. We all had a good time.
Tag: family
Easter 2015 (continued)
For breakfast we had filter coffee, boiled eggs, warm bread rolls out of the oven, as well as some orange juice.
After breakfast at eight we left for the drive to the bottom of Macquarie Pass from where Peter, Caroline and Matthew went on their nice little walk to the waterfall while I stayed outside in the beautiful, warming sun. Towards 11 o’clock we were on the way back home. Matthew was driving. He stopped on the way at a Pie shop in Dapto that was open! Several pieces of cake and a few pies were purchased.
So at eleven at was time for us to have our morning tea and to eat some of the things from the Pie shop. For lunch we had to wait quite a while for Monika and her family were a bit late in arriving. All in all we expected six additional persons for lunch.
Monika came in her car. She has a special child’s seat in her car. Her daughters Tash and Krystal came along too, as well as Tiana, the daughter of Mark. Krystal and Tiana are university students, whereas Tash has a job with the Postal Service. Tash is going to have an engagement celebration this coming Saturday. Krystal turned 18 on Easter Sunday. She had a birthday party the night before her birthday. She started university at the start of this year when she was not even 18 yet. Monica’s daughter Roxy did not come yesterday. But we are going to see her for sure at Tash’s party next Saturday. This is also when we are going to see Troy as well as Ryan and Ebony with their two little sons. It was so lovely that we could see Lucas already yesterday. Tiana kept carrying him. She said he was so cuddly. He did feel a bit tired for a while after they arrived. I think he had already seen Ebony’s parents in the morning and then he was at grandma Monika’s place for a while. After lunch Lucas went outside for some egg hunting. Everybody watched him as he was doing this! Tash and I took pictures.
Back to lunch now. Caroline and Matthew had earlier baked the leg of lamb. We had bought this meat, 2.7 kg of it, at Aldi’s the morning after Peter’s eye op. It only needed heating. Matthew sliced it. I had cooked some red cabbage the previous day. This also needed just some heating up. Caroline cooked green beans and sweat potatoes. Some other potatoes were baked in the oven together with the meat. Caroline filled up a jug with tap water and set the table with this jug, glasses, plates and cutlery. Peter sat up some extra chairs around the table. I think all I had done was to cut the sweat potatoes and to help with the tablecloth. I also took a few pictures of the lunch table.
In between I had another turn of rapid heartbeat. So I stretched out a bit on the sofa to calm down. A few times I did get a bit short of breath. When this happens, I know, I have to take a rest. I am always worried, others might think, I am just lazy! Anyhow, here are the lunch pictures now;
Yes, he knew at every stage how many eggs there were in the basket. Later on Tiana made him count all the chicks he could see. I think he counted right up to twenty!
The girls left early with Lucas to take him home. Tiana drove. She took Monika’s car. Monika went home later with Mark who had come in his car. He had come a bit later for he first had to do something for his mother.
We had a nice coffee afternoon with Monika, Mark, Caroline and Matthew. We animatedly talked about a lot of things. And we did not even drink one bit of liquor! Nobody thought of doing the dishes that had piled up in the kitchen. I had no idea Caroline and Matthew wanted to travel back to Sydney soon after Monika and Mark left. I thought they would stay till Easter Monday. Nobody had told me they wanted to be home on Sunday already. I am afraid I said in a probably snappish sounding voice: So, you are going to leave us with all the dishes!
Caroline became upset. Peter said she cried. Peter said he could do the dishes. I would not have to do a thing. In the end Caroline and Matthew decided they would catch their train one hour later and do the dishes in the meantime. I was very happy that Peter did not have to do the dishes. I probably could have helped him with putting away some of the dishes. However it would really have been such an effort for us oldies. I felt we needed a more restful evening.
I was very grateful that Caroline and Matthew cleaned up the kitchen. They did it very quickly and efficiently. I thanked them for it before they left and apologised that I had been playing up so much. When Caroline had arrived back in Sydney she sent Peter a message on his phone, saying that she loved us both.
When Peter accused me of treating Caroline like a slave, I felt really awful.
Carnival Spirit
Around a quarter past eleven a.m.we arrived yesterday at Circular Quay Railway Station in Sydney.
From the top of the railway station Peter immediately took some pictures of this huge ship that was anchored in Sydney Harbour.
Soon we met Monika, our daughter, as well as Mark and some friends of Mark. Mark’s mother and sister were already on the Carnival Spirit. Monika, Mark and his friends had already booked in for this cruise. They were expected back on board by around 3,30 p.m.
Mark and Monika suggested we could have lunch with them at the German restaurant in the rocks area. It was a lovely walk towards the Rocks. It was promising to be another beautiful warm summer day in Sydney. The temperature actually soon reached thirty degrees Celsius. We had only a very light lunch.
You can find a lot more pictures of the Carnival Spirit here in google:
Diary, Sunday 15th of Feb 2015
Yesterday we left our car in Waterfall. From there we caught the train to the city. We got off at Kings Cross Station. Coming out of the station we met Caroline. Peter took a photo as we were walking along Darlinghurst Road.
A bit further on we had a pizza lunch at the “mad” pizza place. The pizzas we ordered were delicious. I had a pumpkin pizza with plenty of rocket salad on the side. It was so much I could not eat it all. I had not brought my camera. I asked Peter to take a picture of the two pieces that I had left.
The following pictures are from today.
Monika and Mark did bring little Lucas and Baby Alex along today. They were on their way of taking the little ones back home to their parents who were happy that they could yesterday have a good night out for Valentine’s Day. We had not seen the great-grandsons since Christmas Eve. It was a very nice surprise for us seeing them today!
We have had a fairly busy week. On Wednesday and as well as yesterday we have been to Matinee performances in Sydney. On Wednesday it was a performance by New York’s SHEN YUN Performing Arts Company. They are the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. We very much enjoyed all this classical dancing. It is claimed that this kind of classical Chinese dancing has a long history, going back 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.
And yesterday we saw a contemporary Asian Australian story on stage, called Through a Distant Lens. The story is built around old photographs of early Japanese settlers in for instance Broome. These stories go back more than one hundred years. The early Japanese settlers contributed much to the development of Australia’s north. Apart from narration there is naturalistic acting, soundscapes, film, live music and sound, song dance and photography. The old photographs were wonderful to look at on the large screen. They gave a feeling for this long ago life in the northern parts of Australia.
Peter took the above picture. This is the entrance to the theatre of the Griffin Theatre Company.
We did see the story of Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens
in the Griffin Theatre.
Last Monday we went to the movies while our car was being serviced. We saw in the HOYTS Cinemas in Warrawong “The Theory of everything”. Here is the synopsis to this movie from the HOYTS Cinema page:
“Little was expected from Stephen Hawking, a bright but shiftless student of cosmology, given just two years to live following the diagnosis of a fatal illness at 21 years of age. He became galvanized, however, by the love of fellow Cambridge student, Jane Wilde, and he went on to be called the successor to Einstein, as well as a husband and father to their three children. Over the course of their marriage as Stephen’s body collapsed and his academic renown soared, fault lines were exposed that tested the lineaments of their relationship and dramatically altered the course of both of their lives.”
http://www.hoyts.com.au/movies/2015/theory_of_everything.aspx
I thought this movie was well worth seeing. It was very interesting to see what sort of relationships Stephen Hawking had to other people and how he is managing this very debilitating sickness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (This is when the nerves that control the muscles are shutting down.) Eddie Redmayne played Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. I thought he played this part extremely well.
On Tuesday we were home. We had a very dear visitor on that day. We want to go to Sydney with Bronwyn to see a French movie during the French Film Festival next month.
On Thursday I felt sick all day. I think having to stay with very cold air-conditioning on Wednesday for long periods of time had an adverse effect on my system. I can never stand very cold wind or air-conditioning for more than an hour or two. I don’t know what I can do about this.
On Friday I still did not feel quite all right. I tried to take it easy. Luckily on Saturday I had overcome this flu-like sickness. It was a beautiful warm day. This helped a lot. The play lasted only for an hour. We were having lunch sitting outside in balmy summer weather. During the train ride to Waterfall I sat on the sunny side near the window, plus I was wrapped up warmly enough.
Caroline had giving us free tickets for the play on Valentine’s Day. Apart from lunch we also had a gelato treat at Messina’s and later an excellent cup of coffee in an outside cafe nearby. All in all we had a lovely day with Caroline, while Matthew had to work on that day.
Early Memories (A Copy}
The other day I could not copy the pictures to this blog. I have no idea what went wrong that day. Today I tried it again, and it worked immediately! So I publish here once again the whole blog. I guess some bloggers who have already been reading this blog might like to see the pictures that go with it. I did write this blog in 2013.
https://auntyuta.com/2013/06/02/early-memories/
Before I was three we lived in Taunus Strasse, Berlin- Friedenau. Some time during 1937 we moved to Bozener Strasse in Berlin-Schöneberg. This is where Tante Ilse and Onkel Addi lived as well and also my friend Cordula and her parents. Later on we did get to know Family T. who lived in the house opposite our apartment building.
During my early childhood Bozener Strasse was a very quiet street. There were no cars parked in the street.
Tante Ilse had this narrow but very long balcony with a lot of plants to water. As a two year old I loved to help with watering some of the plants!
Here Mum still has this “Bubikopf” which I believe became fashionable already in the 1920s.
In the next picture, which was taken in Bozener Strasse on 21st September 1947, my brother Peter is nearly six. I stand behind Peter. I turned thirteen on this day. My brother Bodo is on the left. He is nine. Beside him Eva Todtenhausen, who is going on twelve and beside Eva is Cordula who is twelve. Today I found out that Cordula died in July 2011, aged 76. This was very sad news for me. 😦
The above picture is from my birthday in 1940. We stand under the huge chestnut tree. Cordula spent part of the war outside of Berlin. She is not in the 1940 picture.
We took the following picture of Bozener Strasse during our Berlin visit in September 2012. It is still the same chestnut tree. But look at all the cars now!
Our apartment was on the third floor, Tante Ilse lived two floors further up. Mum quite often went up with me to visit Tante Ilse. One of my early memories is that Tante Ilse and Mum were lying under the bright lights of some tanning lamps (Höhensonne). They used some oil on their skin which smelled beautiful and made their skin look shiny. Their skin usually had quite a bit of a tan. They wore some protective dark glasses. Sometimes they made me lie under the lamp for a little while. I liked it when some of this nice smelling oil was rubbed all over my body. I too had to wear these dark glasses. I liked to wear them for a little while. But I was required to lie totally still. Very soon I did get sick of it, not wanting to lie still any more under the hot tanning lamp. I was then always glad when I was allowed to get up again.
I remember thinking that Auntie was a very beautiful looking woman with her very long curly hair. In the three way mirrors of her dressing table I remember watching how Auntie brushed her hair. It was very strong and long chestnut-coloured hair. Auntie usually brushed it slightly back so it stayed behind her ears. She often wore very long blue earrings. Oh, I loved the look of these blue earrings. They looked beautiful hanging down from Auntie’s ears! I think Mum did not wear any earrings, because her ears were covered by her hair. Mum’s brown hair was very fine and much shorter than Auntie’s. My hair was rather fine too. Mum always cut it quite short. I often wished that I could wear my hair longer but Mum would not let me grow it longer.
Both Auntie Ilse and Mum wore identical three big rolls of hair horizontally on top of their heads. The front rolls covered the top of their foreheads, the other two rolls were rolled behind the front roll. They often wore identical clothes, for instance light pink angora wool tops with identical grey suits.
Mum features her three big rolls of hair, I am already allowed to wear my hair long!
———-
Mum often called me ‘MAUSEL’ or ‘Mauselchen’, whereas Auntie liked to call me ‘HERZCHEN’ or ‘LIEBLING’. Dad sometimes said ‘HERZEL’ to me, but he usually called me by my name. Mausel is derived from Maus (mouse), Herzchen means ‘little heart’, Liebling means ‘darling’.
Cordula’s mum once told me, that her name meant ‘heart’ in the Latin language, but not to tell anyone otherwise some children would make fun of the name. I did not want anyone to make fun of Cordula. So I promised myself to keep the meaning of the name to myself.
My brother Bodo was born in June 1938. I think Cordula’s brother Tilwin was born a few months after that. Mum said that Tilwin was an extremely odd name. It turned out he grew up with very bright red hair. The children in the street teased him about his hair. As much as possible Cordula always stood up for her brother. I think for the most part Tilwin avoided playing with other children.
The Lepsius apartment was on the same side as our apartment, just two floors further up. (Auntie Ilse’s apartment was on the other side of the fifth floor). I often went up to the Lepsius apartment all by myself to play with Cordula. They had a ‘roof-garden’ (Dachgarten) above their apartment. It was the size of a big room and had no roof above it. I remember the sun shining right into it. The floor was concrete and along the walls were garden-beds . Cordula was allowed to look after her own little garden-bed.. Once Cordula’s Mum let me have a portion of a little garden-bed too! Cordula’s Mum and Dad were always kind to me. They made me feel welcome and included.
Cordula’s family had food that I had never seen before.. For snacks we children were often given some kind of brown flakes and raisins. Sometimes we were given dates or figs. I loved this food! My Mum thought it was strange to eat something like that. In Mum’s opinion this family was rather odd because they had lived in the Middle East for a while. Cordula’s father was an architect. My Mum called him ‘the Hunger-Architect’ (Hungerleider) since he seemed to get hardly any work in his profession.
Mum must have seen their apartment once for I remember her remarking how sparsely furnished it was. Mum found their choice of furniture quite odd. There were a great number of shelves stacked full with books. These shelves went from floor to ceiling. Herr Lepsius sometimes showed us children books with colourful illustrations. He also told us stories. We loved one story in particular which had a funny ending. We demanded to be told that story again and again. Each time we laughed our heads off and Herr L laughed with us. The story was about a beggar who knocked at the door of an apartment. A ily had two connecting apartments across two buildings; that is, the wall between the buildings had beautiful maid opened the door. Some time later the beggar knocked at another door of an apartment in the neighbouring building. And the same beautiful maid opened the door! We found the astonishment of the beggar very funny! Herr L explained to us, that a wall had been broken through to connect the apartments on that floor. This was actually where the family of Herr L had lived, when he was a boy.
Herr L was old and bald. He was about twenty years older than his wife. Quite a few years later Cordula and I went to the same high-school. We walked there together every morning. One morning I climbed up the stairs to Cordula’s apartment to find out why she had not come down yet to go to school with me. I rang the bell. Frau L opened the door. She was in tears. She did not let me come in but went with me to the top of the stairs. She said: “Our father just died; I haven’t even told Cordula yet.” She looked at me with despair in her face. I did not know what to say. She hugged me and then she disappeared in her apartment.
Childhood Memories
I was born on the 21st of September 1934. This was when we lived in Taunus Strasse, Berlin- Friedenau. Some time during 1937 we moved to Bozener Strasse in Berlin-Schöneberg. This is where Tante Ilse and Onkel Addi lived as well and also my friend Cordula Lepsius and her parents. Later on we did get to know Family Todtenhausen who lived in the house opposite our apartment building.
We lived on the third floor, Tante Ilse lived two floors further up. Mum quite often went up with me to visit Tante Ilse. One of my early memories is that Tante Ilse and Mum were lying under the bright lights of some tanning lamps (Höhensonne). They used some oil on their skin which smelled beautiful and made their skin look shiny. Their skin had usually a bit of a tan. They wore some protective dark glasses. Sometimes they made me lie under the lamp for a little while. I liked it when some of this nice smelling oil was rubbed all over my body. I too had to wear these dark glasses. I liked to wear them for a little while. But I was required to lie totally still. Very soon I did get sick of it, not wanting to lie still any more under the hot tanning lamp. I was then always glad when I was allowed to get up again.
I remember thinking that Auntie was a very beautiful looking woman with her very long curly hair. I remember watching In the three way mirrors of her dressing table how Auntie brushed her hair. It was very strong and long chestnut-coloured hair. Auntie usually brushed it slightly back so it stayed behind her ears. She often wore very long blue earrings. Oh, I loved the look of these blue earrings! They looked so beautiful hanging down from Auntie’s ears. I think Mum did not wear any earrings, because her ears were covered by her hair. Mum’s brown hair was very fine and much shorter than Auntie’s. My hair was rather fine too. Mum always cut it quite short. I often wished that I could wear my hair longer but Mum would not let me grow it longer.
Later on both Auntie Ilse as well as Mum wore identical three big rolls of hair horizontally on top of their heads. The front rolls covered the top of their foreheads, the other two rolls were rolled behind the front roll. They also often wore identical clothes, for instance light pink angora wool tops with identical grey suits.
Mum often called me ‘MAUSEL’ or ‘Mauselchen’, whereas Auntie liked to call me ‘HERZCHEN’ or ‘LIEBLING’. Dad sometimes said ‘HERZEL’ to me, but he usually called me by my name. Mausel is derived from Maus (mouse), Herzchen means ‘little heart’, Liebling means ‘darling’.
Cordula’s mum once told me, that her name meant ‘heart’ in the Latin language, but not to tell anyone otherwise some children would make fun of the name. I did not want anyone to make fun of Cordula. So I promised myself to keep the meaning of the name to myself.
My brother Bodo was born in 1938. I think Cordula’s brother Tilwin was born one year later. Mum said that Tilwin was an extremely odd name. And on top of it he grew up with very bright red hair. The children in the street teased him about his hair. As much as possible Cordula always stood up for her brother. I think for the most part Tilwin avoided playing with other children.
We lived on the third floor. The Lepsius apartment was on the same side as our apartment, just two floors further up. (Auntie Ilse’s apartment was on the other side of the fifth floor). I often went up to the Lepsius apartment by myself to play with Cordula. They had a ‘roof-garden’ (Dachgarten) above their apartment. It was the size of a big room and had no roof above it. I remember the sun shining right into it. The floor was concrete, and along the walls were garden-beds . Cordula was allowed to look after her own little garden-bed.. Once Cordula’s Mum let me have a portion of a little garden-bed too! Cordula’s Mum and Dad were always kind to me. They made me feel welcome and included.
Cordula’s family had food that I had never seen before. For snacks we children were often given some kind of brown flakes and raisins. Sometimes we were given dates or figs. I loved this food! My Mum thought it was strange to eat something like that. In Mum’s opinion this family was rather odd because they had lived in the Middle East for a while. Cordula’s father was an architect. My Mum called him ‘the Hunger-Architect’ (Hungerleider) since he seemed to get hardly any work in his profession.
Mum must have seen their apartment once for I remember her remarking how sparsely furnished it was. Mum found their choice of furniture quite odd. There were a great number of shelves stacked full with books. These shelves went from floor to ceiling. Herr Lepsius sometimes showed us children books with colourful illustrations. He also told us stories. We loved one story in particular which had a funny ending. We demanded to be told that story again and again. Each time we laughed our heads off, and Herr Lepsius laughed with us. The story was about a beggar who knocked at the door of an apartment. A beautiful maid opened the door. Some time later the beggar knocked at another door of an apartment in the neighbouring building. And the same beautiful maid opened the door! We found the astonishment of the beggar very funny! Herr Lepsius explained to us, that the family had two connecting apartments across two buildings; that is, the wall between the buildings had been broken through to connect the apartments on that floor. This was actually where the family of Herr Lepsius had lived, when he was a boy.
Herr Lepsius was old and bald. I believe he was about twenty years older than his wife. Quite a few years later Cordula and I went to the same high-school. We walked there together every morning. One morning I climbed up the stairs to Cordula’s apartment to find out why she had not come down yet to go to school with me. I rang the bell. Frau Lepsius opened the door. She was in tears. She did not let me come in but went with me to the top of the stairs. She said: “Our father just died; I haven’t even told Cordula yet.” She looked at me with despair in her face. I did not know what to say. She hugged me and then she disappeared in her apartment.
Now I found out that Cordula died on the 25th of July 2011, aged 76. This was very sad news for me. 😦
Essendon, Melbourne
http://www.yelp.com.au/biz/huxtaburger-collingwood-3
The first two nights in Melbourne Caroline and Matthew stayed with Matthew’s family in Boronia, while Peter and I had some quiet time with Martin in Essendon. During these couple of days Martin and Peter went out a few times to some near by shops. I was happy to stay home and give my sore knee a good rest. I went around the house a bit though taking some pictures. Martin did some beautiful home cooking. He also played a few games of Scrabble with us.
Occasionally we watched a bit of television. However I had set my mind to it that I would not open up any of my blogs, that is I planned not to touch any computer until I would get home to Dapto. Instead I wrote notes in my notebook that Secret Santa had provided me with. A very good pen came with the notebook. This made writing into the notebook a pleasant and rewarding task. I told myself that I wanted to find out how I would fare with my writing if all of a sudden there was no electricity for instance. Well, I just would have to get used to handwriting again. Of course, I am still able to do a bit of handwriting. I can do it if I have to. And it can be enjoyable for a while. Do I prefer typing for most of my writing? I would have to say ‘yes’ to this!
Since I suffered in Melbourne still quite a bit from soreness in my knee and leg I looked up a lot about arthritis in a little booklet that I had with me. I copied many notes about what it said about arthritis. My notebook is full about these notes now. I have to come back to them one day. The most important bit in that booklet seems to me to be the advice to try and loose weight. So, for some weeks now I try to get used to eating less overall, but to eat vegetables as often as possible. This eating a bit less seems already to improve my well being. I do not have this chronic pain in my knee anymore. So, I am happy to say that I do not need a walking stick any more! I am hopeful now that my walking will soon be back to normal.
After lunch on Saturday, the 27th of December 2014, Caroline and Matthew came to Essendon to stay with Martin, Peter and me. The five of us went on a lot of outings. I never had to walk far. Whenever I had to walk a bit I used my walking stick and I walked very, very slowly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essendon_railway_station
On the following Monday, the 29th, Caroline and Matthew went by train from Essendon Station to meet some friends for lunch. Peter drove Martin and me to an outside swimming pool on that Monday where Martin did swim some laps and I did some gentle exercises in the water to make my knee feel a bit better. And bingo, these exercises in the water did make me feel good!
The top three pictures show our different outings the five of us did on three different nights in Melbourne:
Maylasian Food Restaurant, where we had an excellent dinner,
MESSINA Ice-Cream and Haxtaburgers.
Sundays
All five of us ended up tasting a piece of cake of most of the different pieces!
All this happened on Sunday the 28th of December 2014 at the Monarch Cafe in St Kilda, Melbourne.
It was our morning coffee break so to speak. Later on we drove on to Essendon to have lunch at the cafe of the Poynton Nursery. This is where these cakes were available for desert.
However we ordered only lunch with drinks and no deserts. After lunch we had a look around the nursery.
http://www.truelocal.com.au/business/poyntons-nursery-and-garden-centre/essendon
More Pictures from our Visit to Melbourne, December 2014
On Boxing Day we spent some time playing scrabble Peter, very reluctantly, joined Martin and me in a couple of games. The following morning Martin and I had another game. Peter definitely did not want to join again! 🙂 Never mind. Martin and I very much enjoyed another game.
Martin cooked some very good meals for us!
Martin has two bedrooms. He gave one to Peter and me. We had a side door to the balcony, which I thought was lovely! In the living room Martin has a sofa which can be made into a good sized double bed. This is were Caroline and Matthew slept when they came to stay at Martin’s place after having spent a couple of nights at Matthew’s family’s place in Boronia.
Our Visit to Melbourne, 25th to 31st December 2014
https://auntyuta.com/2015/01/02/blue-lotus-water-garden/
The day we went to Blue Lotus Water Garden was our last day with Martin in Melbourne. The following day was New Year’s Eve. We spent New Year’s Eve in Tathra near Bega.
We arrived at Martin’s place in Essendon (Melbourne) late in the afternoon on Christmas Day. Caroline and Matthew soon drove on to Boronia to visit Mathew’s family. Two days later, which was a Saturday, C and M came back to Essendon. They came after lunch. For afternoon coffee we went to Williamstown and later on on our way back to Essendon we stopped at a beer garden at Moonee Ponds. That same Saturday, the five of us, went in the evening in our rental car also the city for some ice-cream at MESSINA’S. Matthew had found out that in Melbourne was the same ice-cream shop that we loved to go to in Sydney. It turned out that the Melbourne shop was with young people just as popular as it was in Sydney.
Earlier that day I had taken a picture of Caroline and Matthew as they arrived at Martin’s place.
I could not help myself, when I saw these Christmas decorations in a coffee shop, I had to take some pictures!
From Williamstown Matthew drove us to Monee Ponds where we stopped for some refreshing cold beer. In that beer garden they had a live band playing lovely music. It was a very nice place for a stop to have a drink.
I catch up with a bit more about Melbourne in another post.
AuntyUta 
I feel sorry that I had lost contact with Cordula over the years. The last time I had seen her was in 1986. I probably could have done more to keep in touch with her. All I know is that at the time her priorities were to give her two children the best possible start in life and to establish a business with her older and already retired husband.
The death notice Peter found by googling Cordula’s name. It was in a church bulletin from October 2011. It was definitely a death notice for Cordula. It showed the correct spelling of her first name and double surname.
WordsFallFromMyEyesJune 5, 2013 at 10:16 pm Edit #
Re the oil over your body – I agree. I would have loved that 🙂
auntyutaJune 5, 2013 at 10:31 pm Edit #
Funny you should think three kids is too many. Actually Tante Ilse thought so too. She thought two children would have been plenty, especially during times of war.
The oil, yes Noeleen, I really loved the smell. I can still imagine all the beautiful smells in Auntie’s bedroom. I am still very sensitive to smell. Some smells I love, others I detest.
The EmuJune 5, 2013 at 11:07 pm Edit #
Beautiful yet sad memories Auntyuta, I see by one of the other comments that your friend Cordula passed away in 2011, a beautiful friendship spanning many years.
Emu
auntyutaJune 6, 2013 at 12:18 am Edit #
Emu, thanks very much for your comment. I have so many memories about Cordula, going as far back as 1937, I believe. It’s kind of strange that there are big gaps when she wasn’t around because of the war. There were some beautiful years of friendship after the war. However she was in a different school year and had not the same friends that I had. Maybe Lieselotte, who was in my class, was the only mutual friend we had. Her Dad had died and then her Mum died too. This was when she moved away from Berlin to stay with her aunts in Stuttgart. Later on she lived in the Middle East. She wrote me beautiful letters. She had a good job. She married late in life. Had two children, sent me lovely photos of her family. She moved with her husband back to Germany. I only saw her once again for an afternoon visit. This was in 1986, such a long time ago! There’s so much I don’t know. Maybe there’s a chance to find out where Tilwin, her brother, is. The last we heard from him, he lived with his wife and two children in Düsseldorf. But this goes back maybe fifty years. Such gaps in time.
I can only say that I always thought that Cordula was a very special person. Maybe I’m imagining things, but I believe she was filled with inner beauty. No, I’m not imagining this. This is how she was. I am sure she led a good life. You’re right, Emu, beautiful yet sad memories.