2005
Dinner
for Traudel and Michael
Barbara's Hands
Rolf
and Barbara in Mammoth
Jenney's Graduation Reunion in
Atlanta
Valerie, Carolyn and Nele
Barbara in Hamburg and
Tübingen
Rolf and Barbara in Rome and Greece
Rolf's
Pleuresy
Dinner
for Taudel and Michael
5 Januar, 2005
A rare photo of Traudel wie sie leibt und lebt
Her charming Advocate nephew from Waldkraiburg in Bayern
Barbara's
arthritic Hands
During
the winter Barbara's hands had swollen so much that she could not do
heavy work any longer. She bought herself some anodized aluminum
skillets and I helped in carring all heavy things. In addition she
was in pain all the time. Her doctor at Kaiser put her on 15 mg of
Prednisone and Methotrexate despite their side effects. After several
months the swellings lessened – but she is still on lower dosis
of both today (2011). She also found a Chinese accupuncturist, Mrs.
Gu, whose mild administrations helped her overall condition for
several years. Eventually a new doctor at Kaiser diagnozed her
affliction as Sjögren's Syndrom, which has additional
manifestations from ordinary arthritis, like dryness of eyes and
mouth and damage to the nerves in her legs. - Today (2011) her
arthritic hands are well controlled, but her legs are in constant
“fire”.
Barbara
and Rolf in Mammoth
18-25
May
Despite her problems we decided to spend a week in the
snow in Mammoth. The snow and sun had always been the best way to
restore us. Not much skiing got done, it was too much labor for both
of us, and the cold was not good for Barbara.
We visted the old haunts by car, like Mono Lake and Bodie.
Lost and Found:
Valerie
Popp
10 May-5
June
One day during the winter of 2004 I received an e-mail from a young woman in Berlin, who complained that I had maligned her grandfather Friedemann Popp in one these pages. Her name was Valerie Popp. I explained that Friedemann had been my parents' friend and that my mother had not forgiven him when he had divorced his wife. This had been in 1938. I had not seen him again since then. - Valerie forgave me, and an endearing correspondence ensued, in which we found out that she was writing a doctoral thesis on the German emigrant writers, many of whom had lived in Pacific Palisades....
Valerie,
- I searched long for a photo of her.
This one I took in Berlin
in 2008. I removed her friend Ute Pannen from the right corner.
So one day she stood before our door – and she liked us so much that she stayed 3 weeks taking the bus to the USC library every day. A most charmimg guest and good friend ever since.
Carolyn
Forrest
many
times
Carolyn had found a job as personal secretary to Ernest Fleischman, the manager of the LA Philharmonic. We saw her often, and an additional benefit were frequent complimentary tickets to concerts. She had continued her pilot training, and when Ernest retired, she left the music business and got herself a co-pilot job for a private jet stationed at Polomar Airport near Carlsbad, CA.
Nele
Gross
6- 8 August
Another visitor was Nele Gross, that daughter of my brother Dieter in Berlin. She had finished her doctorate in engineering-physics and was on her way to give a talk in Hawaii. Since our contacts with Dieter and Evelyn had been poor for decades, we were most happy to have her with us for a week. Another charming young woman. After her return she took a professorship in England and we received mails from her every few months. For unexplained reasons that connection stopped in 2009 - but her brother Malte has takenover with occasional letters.
Nele in the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena
Anik Girard
However, the great surprise was that I found Anik Girard again, our close friend from 1956-1974, whom we had lost completely. With so many people resurfacing, I searched for and found her in the Paris on-line telephone book. I left a message, and two days later she called from her hide-out on the Causse Mejean, Lozere in southern France. It was an emotionally charged reunion. Soon photos and letters arrived. And in February 2007 Anik visited us.
Anik
with white hair among her Tribe at her house on Causse
Mejean
Frederic center back holding Norma, Manuels present
girlfriend,
the two women left and right are unidentified
Manuel
and Lilach, Frederics wife at bottom
Jenny's
Graduation and a Reunion in Atlanta
21-30
May
|
Before |
After |
Jenny was graduating from high school in Atlanta - and Susanne and Cornelius conspired in making the event into a family reunion. Cornelius, AC, and Ulysse would fly in and so would Anneliese and Peter - How could I refuse to join. And the nine days became a memorable and beautiful happening for all of us.
In 2008 I put together a long webpage with many photos of our Family Reunion in Atlanta
Barbara
in Hamburg and Tübingen
27
June
– 19 July
Marga needed to be visited and Klaus and Lilo invited Barbara into their Ferienhaus on Sylt, and from the photos Barbara brought home, they must have had a woderful time walking on the empty beaches.
Klaus and Barbara in Sylt
Lilo and Barbara
Klaus and Lilo
Her visit with Marga was strenuous as always. Marga longed to have her around, but at the same time obstinately rebuffed Barbara's ministrations. And Barbara expended all her energies on her and returned exhausted. On the way back she stopped over in Atlanta for a couple of hours.
Rolf
and Barbara in Rome and Greece
6
September – 14 October
More photos from this our second stay in Rome and our last visit to Greece you find here: Rome. Naxos, Amorgos
Rome
6-11
September
Greece appeared like the place to rescue us from all of our troubles. And, of course, Rome lay on the way. We finally flew with BA via London to Rome and from there by Aegean Airlines to Athens and back. We spent a few days each in Rome and 4 weeks in Greece. AC and Cornelius had given me their bedroom and Barbara the guest room, so we slept very well. It was cool and occasionally rained a little.
Cornelius was touchingly concerned about the two of us and took us to Villa Adriana, Hadrian's old pleasure palace. A vast complex of ruins in a half-wild park.
Cornelius and Barbara at the Villa Adriana
Villa Adriana
Observing
Barabara and Cornelius together was a delight. After his struggles
against his mother in the past,
he had developed a most
considerate personal attitude.
Cornelius “teaching” one of his students
When watching him talk to one of his students on a birthday party for Ulysse, his intense concentration evoked my enviuous admiration. I had never learned that in my 30 years of professional work.
Anne-Cecile cradling Ulysse
Grandma Barbara baking a cake for Ulysse's birthday
Greece
Naxos, Amorgos, and Paros
11
September-10 October
Naxos
12-23
September
We flew from Rome to Atrhens on Aegean Airlines, a much recommended carrier. Uli May had reserved a hotel for us in the Piraeus (Hotel Skorpios) - for Euro 50.- ! We didn't expect much, but the room and bath was large, modern, and clean, and when I pulled the heavy curtains aside - the huge window was filled with the view of the blue sea to the horizon! - Later we discovered a large painting of a naked, suggestively posing woman over the bed! How discreet such things are being handled in Greece! A recommendable place.
Next morning we were plowing the Aegean on the Blue Star "Paros" to Naxos. Dina and Kosta Karabatsi awaited us at the pier, and in the late afternoon we went to the familiar beach.
Aghios Prokopios Beach near Dina Karabatsi's “Studio Apartments”
By bus or with a rental car we visted the places we had not seen before, like the Byzantine churches in the Teghea around Chalkis.
On the way to Chalkis in the Teghea
The exiting new discovery was the Demeter Sanctuary near Ano Sangri, a recently reconstructed “telesterion” where mystery plays in the honor of Demeter were held like in Eleusis. The building was reassembled from “spolia” collected from nearby farms and houses, an exemplary job by a German-Greek team of archeologists
The telesterion at the Demeter Sanctuary
Afterwards we had lunch at Ioannis's charming restaurant in Chalkis
The tourist crowd at Ioannis' in Chalkis. Rolf sits on the left in the background
Amorgos
23
September-7 October
Dina had recommend a yet untried accomodation in Katapola: “Panos'Rooms”. When we arrived in Amorgos at night after a beautifl 5-hour afternoon ride through the “Lesser Cycladic Islands”, we were faced by the familiar combattive crowd of women trying to find customers for their rooms. Panos was hiding in the background of this riotious scene. I asked one of the women – by chance his mother – who with an imperial voice ordered him to the front. He turned out to be one of the most decent people I ever met in Amorgos. He packed us into his car, and a few minutes later we were installed in a two-room apartment with kitchen and three balconies – for 25 Euro per night! By far the best place we ever stayed in in Greece.
Barbara in the kitchen of our apartment at “Panos' Rooms” in Katapola-Xylokeratidis
We
revisited all our beloved places. We spent a day at the nude beach,
Barbara walked up and down to the Chora and even visited the
monastery by herself. Barbara was blissfully happy. We were home.
In
2004 we had met on a hike down from the Chora Eugene Sarolea and his
much younger wife from Leidschendam in Holland.
We knew that they were going to be somewhere in the islands at the
same time as we. And one morning they stood before our door at
Panos'!
Barbara and Eugene and Anna Sarolea in the Chora
A philosophical discussion on our kitchen balcony
Eugene's passion was Byzantine choral music. Despite that he needed a powerful hearing aid, he sang with a beautiful voice.
Eugene Sarolea
Many a noon we spent at the Kafeneion “O Thanos” on the Plateaki in the Chora owned by Ioannis's Amorgan wife and operated by him and his daughter Demitra, who insisted that her name was not derived from Saint Demitrios but from the Greek goddess Demeter!
Demitra admiring Barbara's necklace.
Barbara and Rolf at “O Thanos”
I did feel unusually weak and tired.
Resting exhausted in the Garden of the Monks
Katapola Bay in the October light
As the October weather turned foggy and cold I woke up one morning sweating profusely. My breathing had become so short that Barbara dragged me to the local medical emergency station. It took me 15 minutes to limp the 150-m from Panos' to the place. The doctor turned me around, jabbed a powerful shot of antibiotic into my behind, and told me to come back in two hours. Meanwhile he asked the school teacher to come over and translate. When I returned somewhat improved, the two put me on a 7-day antibiotic regime (Augmentine plus some other antibiotic). My breathing became better, but my great weakness was still accompanied by nightly attacks of profuse sweating.
Paros
8-11
October
We decided to transfer with the fast boat to Paros where there was a regular hospital. The doctors there took an x-ray of my chest and discovered a huge shadow covering my entire right lung...! They offered me a free helicopter transfer to an excellent hospital in Athens! To Barbara's dismay I refused. I felt able to make my way back to LA where Kaiser would take care of me. I practiced complete rest - we call this “Sufi Sleep” - and made it, first to Athens – 5 hours by boat – and on the same day to Rome.
Our last time in Greece....
Rome
on the Return
11-15 October
Rolf resting on Ulysse's bed...
...where in my dreams I heard Ulysse playing the harmonica to the accompaniment of the Cycladic Flutist from Amorgos
At Kaiser emergency they confined me to the hospital. Not a place to recover. They took several x-rays and an MRI, and found the shadow – an accumulation of water between the two diaphrgmas that enclose the lung. The liquid was drained in the NMR machine - by that time only a mere 150cc. It was sterile. Another regimen of Augmentine and strict rest at home eventually took care of it. Nobody produced a diagnosis of the origin - Carolyn called it “pleuresy”, which is as good as any other explanation.
Christmas
with Sherwin and Linda
25
Dec 2005
We celebrated Christmas Eve as usual with Anneliese and Peter. On Christmas Day we invited Sherwin Amimoto and Linda, who had jut decided to get married.
Sherwin and Linda on Christmas Day a week before they got married
They gave a party for their many friends at a church in Palos Verdes.
Oh, for our Californian Christmas!
Pacific
Palisades,
