Let (Not) Go Of Me

Pic: Bro and Grandma.

Maybe you can tell a similar story?
My Mum did not go. Bro even stayed the night.
She left when he had left.

Now... I think it´s SIL or the fact of having a child, Bro turned to the church more.

The Reverend we talked to after Mum left said it´s quite common that people die when finally left alone and Bro suddenly remembered what (Uncle S. - we´re not allowed to call him that anymore, "Uncle", he feels old with 80+) well, what S. told him:

Our Grandma - who raised Bro and I (out of 14 Grandkids us it was) had her children around her when she tried to leave.

At one point - she was lying still, eyes closed, for days - she straightened up, eyes still closed, and moved her arms like saying: "go out, leave me alone!"

Her kids obeyed and she died.
Same with Mum.

I decided to visit the hospital in which Bro and I and his Daughter were born, and our Mum died, once more.
It´s late, but maybe the intensive-care-team still remembers us. We were allowed to stay as long as we liked not only the usual 30 minutes (we were no trouble), they were so friendly and caring, esp G. - I hope I see him again.
Every time he adjusted the mask he took care to warm the naked part of Mum´s skull and he did it like it was a natural thing to do, too.
He has my deepest respect.
I´ll bring them a Gumbaer-Pizza with a thank-you-note.

I kinda look forward to that weird day.

On March 8th I will see the intesive care-team again.
On March 8th we finally see te notary concerning our Mum´s death.
On March 8th our Dad would´ve turned 74 - in August he´s gone 10 years.

Sorry if my blog is very death-related atm.
But this is going on in my head right now.

Fun things are surely still happening, I guess.

Be Aware Of My Family

The rest that is there, that is...
Pic: Bro in the United States. With a gun.

Yesterday night Bro called me. He sounded so darn sad, missing our Mum.
He and his wife are fighting, as Ingo and I.
We talked about our Mum and he told me this... rather not so funny at the time story. But now we had to laugh.

What happened.... Bro was in his shop a few month ago when three officers entered and demanded to speak to our Mum. Actually they said they need to take her with em.
Bro was quite shocked.

The lady in question (with her first kid, me):

Mum had inherited my Dad´s weapons.
Dad was a musketeer in his free time and generally liked to shoot (things).
(Here his club (he was one of the founders) think of my Mum in memoriam)
He grew that beard only for the occasion, the Sehusa-Festival.

I have to insert an insane story here: I was 9, I guess, my parents wanted to go out, Bro was 4, we lived above the shop, hence Dad had a Magnum 45 revolver. On the board.
He took me to the side, took the Magnum, and said, "if a burglar enters the house, take the Magnum, put the switch to 'f' for fire and shoot him. Take care you do not injure him, but kill him", he said. "If he survives, we have to pay his rent. And save one bullet that you shoot in the ceiling afterwards. Tell the police this was your first shot to warn him off."
He was serious, too.

No, really!
And I had the most horrible night with certainly no one breaking in.
And even now, I´d remember to switch to "f" first.
Ages later Ingo took me to a place where we were allowed to shoot. Guys... I never even hit the wall... in the ceiling it went.

Back to Mum... she had herself registered for Bad Harzburg, where the air is better. As it happened she went sick before she could move in. Letter after letter arrived asking if the weapons are in a safe - which is requested since 9/11. They found out where Mum lives and were serious.
Can you picture this? Hilarious! Three officers taking away my small, tiny Mum? I just had to laugh...
Certainly they could show the weapons are safe. They were confiscated and Bro now tries to get them back.
Weirdos, my family. Wanna have a proof? Who takes a pic like this?!

At Bro´s 5th Birthday...

I was quite... angry? Disappointed that Bro told me Wednesday a week ago he´ll call the notary and tell me asap and I never heard of him.
But the moment I heard his sad voice all anger was gone. Life is a wild ride (and this was when snow was still fun):

We went through a lot together, Bro and I. Here we are in Vienna on Prater, a huge amusement park.

See that rather large ,tall man in the background? "Uncle" Adi. He now weighs some 50 kg. Cancer eats him up.

Best Ever

Miss you, Freddie. "You sing very nice."

Beautiful Day

Sat we went to Aldi to get some coffee - and came home with another "tattoo":

Was quite tricky, but Ingo did a great job, no?
Who says German is always so much longer than English?!
"Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life" is indeed longer, three more words even.

Love those socks and they fit to the shoes...

Bro asked me today if Ingo and I had secretly married? There were several cards adressed to Ingo with my surname that arrived at Bro´s house. From people who showed sympathy concerning our Mum´s death. He´ll show me those he found comforting next time we meet. Several cards, weird, huh?

Bro even offered me his Daughter for comfort - he added he wouldn´t do that for any other person in the world - am I glad to hear that ;-)
And honored!
I had a user on Monday who wore my Mum´s name, Brunhilde, and told him. Happened the first time (that I had that name, not that I told Bro anything....) and made me incredible sad. Somehow it´s still so unreal.
Bro also offered me Mum´s jewelry, but, aww, well, Mum liked gold, I prefer silver and... it´s too early for me to think about this.

This pic is also from Saturday, just outside our house we saw this:

Someone had bought this Braunschweig-bag, even the price-tag is still attached. And then he lost it. And someone else put it on the fence. Love this town, people do care :-)
Happy Valentine´s Day.

Generous

Update - 168.500 €! see here
Update - 130 000 € it is now! See German article
Now this is kinda... great. Some one or some people, who knows, give away their money here in my town! You know... makes me proud living here in the town where the Lion roars...

Last weekend a Pastor found 10 000 € in his church. Since November someone gives his money to kindergarden, victim-help, Star boys' singing procession, library, Lessing-school, our Museum, the friendly society „Löwe für Löwe“, a soup-kitchen and to one boy who is left massively handicapped since an accident.

So far it´s some whopping 120 000 €!

Usually the person added an article from the local newspaper to indicate where he wants to see the money working. Not this time, so maybe someone else jumped on the train, too?

Wow, huh?

Here is the German article.

The Dog Is Funnier

...than the Vader-Kid.
Haha, have you seen the new Volkswagen Beetle-Spot at the Superbowl?
"That´s the power of German engineering" sure makes me proud to read.
And no. Didn´t join the Superbowl :-(
This is a goal for once, I tell ya! Some real game of footy would be enough though, and maybe we make it to the USA this year, who knows? (Plans are made!)

So far, we´re freezing our butts off. As you can see in the pic.
For once we cut our Monday-tradition and did not go to the city, just to the white Ross. To get some Supermarket-Pizza! Junk Food Galore!

But first... I sighted this car right in front of mine:

Certainly we cannot let it be that way, huh? My car has to have a make-over here!

There you go, my boy(s)! :-)

The beautiful face of winter:

But this is it. Can´t wait for spring, I tell ya!!!

Give Me My Bread!

This was last weekend. I failed to take a proper pic due to the cold, but here comes:

Our bakery.
The other Saturday we came in - a whole bunch of people before us in line - even outside -, those kind of people who go "ummm, what´s this, awww, how does this one taste like... ", ya know.
Our bakery-girl saw us, took us for first place, said, ahh, "Mr. K. - family K. :-) - anything on top you ordered?" We got 4 rolls on top, gave the money and left. I told her it was nice, but actually I don´t like being treated like that (ok, we´re always quick!).

Well, as a thank you we brought them a "Pizza" from Gummibaer-Land, gosh, they loved it and made no bigger fuss about it either, "good girls" :-)

On we went to "real;-", brrr, see how cold it is over here?

It sure is freaking cold.

Saw this one, so cute (but too expensive, if you ask me):

At work we´re not allowed to surf the internet in lunch-break anymore, so I finally got my diary from 1999 out again - the hand-written one - to digitalize it.
From May to December in 1999 we traveled Australia - and had Elmo with us. I´ll tell when I´m done, maybe someone likes to read along how we tried and failed in many ways, and how we succeeded all so often, too. It´s about the wee things in life!

Well here is my carrot-man looking at my tea-cup:

It says "Löwenstadt", Lion-City.

Oh, gosh. It´s so dang cold. 300 people lost their lifes already, can you believe it.
I have to pay for my Mum´s funeral. 3800 euro, I really wonder how that did happen? I´ll get the money back as soon as we get our Mum´s money. Still. Boy. Dying is expensive.