Visiting Christa and Klaus at Cheeca, Lodge on Islamorada in Florida

We met boating and had a party on `Good Times`` every weekend! What fond memories , Hugs Peter & Pascale

LOVE… LOVE… LOVE

What is love? We say it all the time at various occasions. “I love this city”. “I love this food”. “I love to play golf “, etc. and most of all

“I Love You”

 We say it so many times, often without really meaning it. Through Christa’s action, I learned what true love is all about.

 When I met Christa 52 years ago at the age of 16, she was in a midst of a promising career at a major German newspaper and was already successful as a fashion and photo model. I was a hotel apprentice making $10 a month.

 My dad liked Christa very much, but felt that I was too young for a serious relation and started to systematically brainwashing me to end our relationship.

 My apprenticeship ended in 1963 and I took a seasonable job as a waiter in a hotel in the French part of Switzerland. At that time, Christa and I were together for 2 years. Despite my dad’s protest, I asked Christa to come along with me. Just imagine, in order to be able to come with me to Switzerland, she gave up her career and worked as a helper in the kitchen of the hotel, having to share her room with a female utility worker.

 Six month later, I accepted a job as a waiter at a hotel in Paris. Again, Christa came with me. At first she didn’t have a work visa. She ended up working as an au pair and living with a strange family. Fortunate, shortly thereafter, she did get a work visa and again started a promising career as a fashion model for Nina Ricci.

 Only nine months later I accepted a waiter job in Houston, Texas making $3.50 a day. By then, my dad’s continuous brainwashing had become effective and I flew to Houston by myself. Well, this didn’t stop Christa. Again, and without me knowing it, she gave up her career and despite the fact that she didn’t speak one word of English, flew to Houston on her own two weeks later.
 
She didn’t know, that in the meantime, I had accepted a transfer to Hartford, CT and after arriving in Houston and finding out about it, she travelled to Hartford in a bus, 4 days cross country where we happily reunited. She stayed at a YWCA and I at a WMCY at app. $3.00 per night.

We didn’t like Hartford and after 3 month, I called the GM in Houston and asked him if I could come back. He confirmed and Christa and I took again the bus back to Houston, where she initially worked as a kitchen helper in the hotel.

 How many people would have done this? Christa’s love was pure, unconditionally and totally committed. This love existed until she passed away 50 years later.

 I was so very lucky to be loved so entirely by someone so beautiful and compassionate inside and out. I will always cherish our love and life together until the end of my life.