See the pretty teenager in the right hand corner? Thats my Aunt Elizabeth, or Tante Liese. Today she is being laid to rest in the beautiful mountains of Fernie, B.C. (below), the town I loved to visit when I was growing up, although we didnt go there very often. She was ten years older than my dad (in the lederhosen), and lived a long and sometimes dramatic life. One of my other aunts told me once that when they escaped the fire of Stalin and the communists, and fled to the frying pan of Germany and Hitler, my Tante Liese was immediately conscripted as a maid for a high ranking Nazis wife. My Oma and Opa had no choice in the matter, of course. I wonder, was this picture taken before or after? Since I heard that story, Ive worried about my sweet aunt as a teenager. What was that like? What did she see and experience? Sometimes, my heart aches for what my dads family went through. The family came to Canada by boat in 1947, when she 20, and my dad was 10. She married Uncle Peter and they had nine children--nine! They had four dogs, and I remember three of their names: Happy (had a perma grin), Sorry (looked repentant), and a Chihuahua named Goliath, whose bark was gigantic. Nine children, four dogs, and she ran a motel and played the guitar! I wish I could have known her better, and seen her again in this life. I wish I could be there in Fernie today, but my heart is in that surreal place with my cousins today. Rest in peace, Aunt Elizabeth, and send my love to your little brother.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 17:32:13 +0000
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