Cornelius, Calliope, Gemma and Cathy at Disney Land, 2 Jan, 2013
Calliope, who understood our English, but didn't say a word, was happy to talk Italian with Gemma and Cathy
2013
A
Year
of Retrenchment
Let
our Children and Grandchildren carry the Torch
Entries from our Desk-Calendar
Dec 25, 2012-Jan 3, 2013
Cornelius
and shy Calliope leave for Rome
After trying for 10 days to make our little sphinx talk to us, Cornelius took her to Disney Land with Gemma and her daughter Cathy, who both speak Italian.
Cornelius,
Calliope, Gemma and Cathy at Disney Land, 2 Jan, 2013
Calliope,
who understood our English, but didn't say a word, was happy to talk
Italian with Gemma and Cathy
On Jan 3 they flew with Air France, after a 2 hour wait on the runway to Paris and Rome. It was not a successful encounter, still Barbara saw her beloved grandchild leave with tears in her eyes. We would see her in the Summer of 2014 again.
Jan 19, 2013
Marga died in
Tübingen 99 years old
The
last photo of Marga (with Eva Scherwitz), Christmas 2012
Her death was not unexpected. Marga had been fading for months. Frau Barbara Süss had visited her every week and had faithfully sent us mail-reports about her condition. Yet, Barbara had saved frequent flier miles for years to fly to Marga's funeral – and now, because of her neuropathy had to give up this promise.
Jan 24,2013
Marga's Cremation in
Tübingen
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Christian and Dieter Lattmann handled her funeral – she wanted to be cremated to make it possible to have her ashes transferred into the family grave in Blankenburg – together with her husband's Hans, Barbara's father. All of this was a tremendous amount of labor for Christian.
Cornelius and Anne-Cecile flew to Tübingen for the funeral and took these pictures. They also visited Marga's old apartment, and took the photo of Juschka's portrait.
May 10, 2013
Internment of
Marga's ashes in Blankenburg
Christian
and Eva in front of the family memorial in Blankenburg
In May the Scherwitzes took Marga's
ashes to Blankenburg and had new grave plates installed for her and
Hans
Barbara inherited some money from Marga and on May 6 opened
a new bank account at Wells-Fargo (Vlady) in her and Susanne's name.
Feb 14, 2013
Barbara has a car
accident
The
demolished front end of her Jetta
In stop-and-go traffic on her way
home on Pacific Coast Highway she was suddenly awakened by a
terrifying crash. The truck in front of her had stopped, and her
front end had drifted into its rear end. She claimed, she had closed
her eyes for a moment.
She called me from her cell phone. Very
composed: nobody was hurt. The nice driver of the undamaged truck
helped her call the AAA, who towed her car to our house. Next day the
VW repair service took the car to their shop: the motor was ok, the
cosmetic damage extensive. They did a fabulous repair job for $6000 -
the insurance paid. Five weeks later the good old Jetta was better
than before.
From Feb 15 to Mar 25 2013 Barbara drove a Toyota
rental car with automatic transmission, which finally convinced her
in 2014 to exchange her old Jetta against a newer, used one with
automatic. Her feet-on-fire could at times not tell the right from
the left, the brake from the clutch pedal....
Feb 27-Mar 8 2013
Susanne and
Cornelius visit us
Cornelius
consoling his sister
Susanne flew in as soon as she had heard of Barbara's accident. Cornelius, who had to give a talk in Long Beach, appeared a few days later. She was in tears over the general condition of her Mumintal.
Cornelius
rigged this “selfie” of us four
I look more terrible
than I felt and Barbara more composed than she did
Mar 26-Apr 7, 2013
Regine Wörner
stays with us for Easter
Barbara's
Easter Breakfast for Regine, Anneliese and a Swiss friend, Peter,
Jenny and Thom, and Jack
There are no other photos
Apr
14, 2013
Anneliese
& Peter fly on an
extended European
visit.
Anneliese
in Helsinki, Apr 27, 2013
Anneliese and Peter have worked out an enjoyable way of traveling together. This time they took a slow freighter along the coasts of the Baltic Sea: from Lübeck to Helsinki, St. Petersburg and surroundings and back through the Swedish ports. Peter afterwards visited Marc Hermans and Angel and joined his mother at her sister's in the Eifel.
Jun 3-Sep 20,
2013
Barbara hires Jaime Galeano to work off and on on the house.
He soon becomes her dedicated follower, who does everything from
washing windows to painting the outside – and killing the
termites - putting in new windows in the guestroom and the kitchen,
to eventually painting all rooms. He does careful work at reasonable
prices – if one can put up with his ambiguous Middle-American
sense of time and schedules....
Jul 6-9, 2013
Susie
comes for Barbara's birthday
Barbara
talking to Cornelius in Rome
For Barbara's birthday Susanne flew
in, and we had the traditional breakfast with Anneliese and Peter and
Jenny and Thom.
Susanne
with her Mumin Jul 8, 2013
Jul 20, 2013
Basia Kasliwal
visits the Romans
Cornelius
and friends at their beach shack
Anaïs fell asleep and is
missing
Basia was to meet Pari in Siena and Florence and made day-stop in Rome. Cornelius picked her up at the airport and whisked to their beach shack, where a party of his family and friends awaited them. The beach house has become Anne-Cecile's refuge from her dreary patent lawyer work.
Jul 26, 2013
Cornelius wins an
ERC Research Grant
Cornelius had applied at the European Research Council for a large grant to explore the brain neurology of anxiety in mice. He had essentially given up on the application, when ERC informed him that he had won 2.5 Mill Euro for 5 researchers over 5 years!! For the first time I admired his scientific courage – I tried only once to get such a large grant – and in retrospect, thank God I lost.
Aug 8-28, 2013
The Romans in
Turkey, climbing Mt. Ararat
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Cornelius' dream of Mt. Ararat goes back to a vision of the Armenian Holy Mountain when he was 15, and it appeared in the clouds above Yerevan. It left him no peace until he took his whole clan there in August 2013. They drove close to 4000 km from Rome all the way to Eastern Turkey, camping in the wild and the same distance back in 20 days. - You find 400 more pictures on Cornelius' photo page.
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Aug 11, 2013
Valerie's Birthday
Valerie
and Caspar
Barbara has a large number of friends and followers, Valerie Popp is mine. An intelligent – she has PhD in German literature - and attractive young woman she has a weak ego, which together makes her get stuck with unworthy men. Caspar (5) is the son of her last such liaison. I had hoped Caspar would strengthen her self-esteem, but, as the photographer has shown so ingeniously, he is merely pulling her around.... For non-Berliners Teute is the Teuteburger Platz, near where Valerie has an apartment.
Aug
13-16, 2013
Carolyn,
Robert & Lorraine stay with us
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Every now and then our beloved Carolyn breaks her busy flight schedule and appears at our house, this time with Robert and Lorraine – just for two, too short days.
Oct 26, 2013
Barbara
had lunch with Basia Kasliwal...
...and
took this candid photograph of her ever closer friend
After her first experimental molecular-biology therapy treatment stopped working, Basia transferred to another such research project at UC San Diego – so far (2014) with excellent results. Her cancer has essentially disappeared, and she works in caritative projects through her church and travels all over the world. The two Barbaras have become very close friends.
Nov
13-16, 2013
Susie
and Cornelius visit
The greatest news - Susanne wants to buy her own Shop. Tired of running the store for BB&B she is buying a plant shop, “Urban Roots”, in the center of Denver with a Small-Business Loan of $150 000. She plans to convert it into a landscape designer's paradise.... With Cornelius at her side she spent all day on her i Phone talking to lenders and lawyers. On January 2, 2014 she will quit her old job.
Cornelius is searching
the scientific world for first-class post-doctoral researchers for
his new ERC project – all of them but one women....
Together
with Barbara and Susanne he went shopping for Mumin's Christmas
presents for his children: for Ulysse a large down comforter and a
sheep skin because he felt cold in Winter....
How lucky we are that our children and grandchildren have turned out so well!
Rome,
Ulysse happily snuggling under his new sheep skin on
top of the feather
bedding.
Nov
21-26, 2013
Heike
Rönitz visits,
Dinner with Anneliese, Peter, Monica and
Susanne
Willumsen and Monica's friend Don
Heike
among old friends
Dec
24, 2013,
Anneliese
& Peter, Thom & Jenny, and Susanne
Willumsen on Christmas
Eve
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A
pensive Rolf
And I the observer and raconteur? -
I have lost my physical balance. Out of fear of another dangerous
fall, I shuffle around the house with a walker – like an old
man. This constrains my ability to accompany Barbara on her errands
and outings. I get out of the house only for doctor visits or a
haircut. Besides allergenic troubles which plug up my nose-ear canal
and swollen feet I am in contrast to Barbara in no pain. My head
still works fine, as the many new additions to my website
show.
Barbara has become my savior. Without complaints –
except when I forget to shave – she helps me take a shower,
arranges my blankets at night, washes the laundry every day, goes
shopping to Trader Joe's once a week, cooks fabulous soups, prepares
three meals, and does a myriad of errands on her long walks to her
other charges in the village.
Jan 1, 2014
The Year of the Ram
Our
New Year's Card
The Ram
in the Rosebush
Royal
Tombs of Ur, Mesopotamia, 2560 BC
from Man
and His Gods
Pacific Palisades, July 20, 2014 – our 57th Wedding Anniversary!
