August 23, 2013

It is a special day for us ....

Back in the summer of 1988 my uncle Heinz (Heinz - Joachim) came to visit us in Canada.  This was before the wall between Eastern and Western Germany came down.  It was still the time of the Cold War.

But he got permission to go to Canada to visit his nephew - me (H)!  But without his wife - Ursel!

But by shear determination and organization, he and his son (living in the West at that time) also managed to coordinate their arrival and stay with us.

We picked them up at the Mirabel airport and stayed in the airport hotel - which had a swimming pool set in a botanical garden.  We all had a swim at midnight!  A good way to start our celebration of coming together again after so many years.  He remembered that!

And then we went to Kingston.  Although we (M&H) had a very difficult time due to health issues, we took them around Kingston, Toronto and environs.

Whenever I talk to him, 2 events stayed with him until his last days.  He had been a teacher, and talking to an historian at the school across the river, this conversation stayed with him all his life.

The other one, was him of getting "lost" in the 1000 Islands at Endymion Island - just 50 yards away from the US border.  Different times then and now ....  But he made it back, worried, safely, but very exhausted.   But this memory never left him and propped up at every conversation we had over the phone since.

Here he arrives completely beat, and worried that he may have strayed in US waters.

Heinz, and if you would have!!! ... but he remembered this adventure all through his life.

He had his funeral on August 23, 2013.  Since we were not able to attend, we decided to move our boat on that date to the same place where this "incident" took place.  And in memory of him, we took our (new) dinghy around the island, the same way he had done and thought about our times together, and our past.

And upon our return to our ship we had a glass of red wine to his life.

Heinz, we will remember you as long as we live.  It was a pleasure being with you at that time, and your son, Jochen.

A few years later, my mother came to visit and we took her along the same route.

She did not row around the island as her brother did, but went into the water like a fish and could not be stopped.

And may I mentioned, I never got my hat back!!!!  I would need it now!  I have less hair!

Marleyne and I went back to see them both and Ursel a short while later when we were taking a break from our trip in the Caribbean.  We all had a nice afternoon.

Memories, by which we live by ...

H&M