The Final Reunion

L-R: David, Nick,Jaclyn, LynDee

A class of 320, down to 48

including spouses.

Some classmates wanted to come 

but couldn’t at the last minute

Some couldn’t due to their health

Some couldn’t due to their spouses

Some were travelling 

and some had died.  . . .

A war-worn group gathered for

A last reunion.

We were the survivors

We had all had battles but 

were climbing out of the 

foxholes of life:

the death of a spouse

the ravages of cancer

caring for someone with dementia.

.

We laughed, we cried, we shared

Sometimes picking up conversations

that were started years ago.

Some wanted music but it 

drowned out

those important discussions about life

and survival.

the music was shouted off.

Too many memories in the music 

of being young with our futures ahead.

With no more partners, 

there were no more last dances.

We gathered in our diminishing circle

of friends we’d created years ago.

Tables of friends who were so happy

gathering around that circle 

like Scouts at a campfire,

few tried to circulate.

And then, the last hour of the last night of the last reunion

A few moved cautiously to another table 

to re-ignite friendships: 

To blow on the embers

of possiblities that might have been.

But as the clock struck 10, we scattered the ashes,

let the fire go out ,

and left

the Firefighters Hall 

to go home.

But like Phoenix from the ashes

We went home to our new circle of friends

To live with those warm memories of the past, 

Awaiting

The Final Reunion.

L-R: Carol, Pat, Ingrid, David, Nick, Jaclyn, LynDee

L-R:Carol, Joan, Ed, Pat, Ingrid

Terry, Vito, Ed

Clockwise: Pat, Gerri, Judy, Terry, Ed

Ed and Ruth

Berlin Part 3

After driving around Berlin, Reinhard and I went to his mother’s apartment where we “celebrated” Christmas. His mother was a small woman with dark hair and a welcoming smile but the smiles never made it to her eyes which were dark and piercing. I later learned she was not happy with our relationship.  But at the time, I thought she was “nice”. For Christmas I had knitted Reinhard a “scarf”, my first and last.  It was very large—-more like a lap throw than a scarf. He laughed because he had needed a scarf, so his mother had knitted one for him (probably more standard sized) He gave me a lovely evening bag which I still use.  We had a wine concoction made within a glass flask and heat.  It might have been  Glühwein: basically mulled wine with a dash of rum or amoretto.  It is a German Christmas tradition as, egg nog is for us. (I’m not a fan of either beverage)

We visited the museum that had Queen Nefertiti’s bust which was on my Berlin bucket list.   She was as beautiful in person as I had believed she would be:  that long proud neck holding her head high and the knowing smile of a ruler who was totally in control with her confidence alone. 

Berlin was a beautiful modern city with wide streets and a lot of “open” space.  I later realized why everything was so new and open: it had been bombed in WWII. They had modern shopping malls with ice skating and theaters.  I even saw Doctor Zhivago in German having read the book and seen the film in English, first.

Reinhard, his mother and I also  visited various family and friends while I was being shown around West Berlin. They all seemed quite formal and reserved.  Although no one was rude to me, no one was friendly either.  It didn’t really bother me because I thought maybe they were uncomfortable around someone who had been their enemy.  They were the age of people who had fought Americans during World War II.  Some of them might have also  been Nazis.  Perhaps I was just accustomed to the joviality of the Bavarians and not accustomed to Prussians. (Those were the two dominate German cultures) One thought I didn’t have was, his mother had told them ahead of time how much she disapproved of me.

 In West Berlin, I  only saw one ruin from WWII: Kaiser Wilhem Gedänkniskirche

which was a memorial to all that was lost in WWII.  Half the church was in ruins with a beautiful cotillion building and worship center next to it.  It is probably my favorite church in Europe—-one I’ve thought of a lot over the years. The juxtaposition of a beautiful Gothic stone church in ruins beside the new, sleek building——that combination pretty much describes the oxymoron of East and West Berlin in the 1960s.

Most photos of the Berlin Wall during that time were of Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg gate)—-once a regal gate to the city but was now a  part of the Wall. It had been the celebrated symbol of Berlin but now was a tragic memorial to the “Cold War”.  In other places  around Berlin “The Wall” consisted of bricked up abandoned buildings, waterways and barbed wire fences with guard towers. This is probably the only time in history, a wall was built to keep the citizens imprisoned and not to keep the enemy out. Although their standard rebuttal was that it kept spies from the West from getting in.

On New Year’s Eve, Reinhard and I went to the symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth (Ode to Joy) followed by a party with his friends and family at the Potsdamer Rudder Club on Wannsee. My journal says we got back to the apartment at  6:30 AM which was probably before dawn, at least. I mostly recall partying and dancing the night away with all of Reinhard’s cousins and friends, but he mostly sat it out and just watched amused. These friends and family were very friendly and welcoming unlike those of their parent’s generation. He loved seeing them so welcoming to me.

Me clowning with Reinhard's pipe.

We are in the back against a wall.

 We went outside for the New Year’s countdown and to view fireworks over the lake. I recall standing beside the dark lake with Reinhard’s jacket over my shoulders and then wrapped by his arms..  I looked up at him, our eyes locked and then we kissed to celebrate the New Year 1967. This “Hallmark” scene is what I remember the most—-thinking of my future with Reinhard,  but  not thinking of our future in a few days when we needed to return to our homes in Memmingen, West Germany.

fortgesetzt werden.. . . .