How does one sum up a lifetime epitomized by a teacher/mother/warrior’s heart? She lived to make the world a smaller place, to help people deeply understand the hearts of not only people a continent away, but also the people around us in our daily lives. She displayed an insatiable hunger for learning and knowledge, whether exemplified through 50+ years as a teacher or still taking classes at the U. of W. well into her 90’s (former students are allowed to be ‘outraged’ that she would no longer take the course exams – claimed that she just wanted knowledge).
Meeting our father, a soldier still stationed in war torn Germany after the war, began a dual love affair with her native Germany and home to be, America. She witnessed American soldiers, after losing friends and brothers in the war, give freely of their meager C-rations and chocolates to the German children and hungry. When she came to the States with our father, she saw and heard so many stories of American families ravaged and hurt by losses in the war as well, bitter against the ‘German War Machine’. She became driven to let her new country know that if they would just know the hearts and people of Germany, they would know that people are very much the same everywhere with similar dreams, hopes, moments of despair, and triumphs.
This drive to bring two worlds together fueled the work, commitment, and single-minded focus (that would become her trademark) to a level that would gain local, nation, and international awards and attention over the next 50 years. A mother who barely spoke the language with 3 boys took on 3 additional jobs while putting herself through the tough courses at the University of Washington necessary to get her Bachelors, then her teaching degree, and then a Master’s degree. She began teaching German at Lake Washington High School in the 60’s, but soon realized that this was not enough to allow the students to know the heart and soul of the people whose language they were learning. She started an Exchange Program with Germany (her own time and money) which would send US students to Germany for 6 months, ostensibly to study, but in reality to learn to understand and love another people by living with their families for this time. The German counterpart students from the host families would then come here and do the same, creating bonds that have lasted for many over decades.
She taught into her 80’s, attended universities into her 90’s, had season tickets to the plays and operas well into her 90’s, skied into her 70’s, and played tennis into her early 80’s. Mom lived her life fully, loving her gatherings and dinners with her various groups of friends, all of which had a profound and loving impact on her life and her success.
If asked to sum up her life, she would not mention the many awards and accolades that she received over the years, but would tearfully point to the letters from the students that continued to come in long after she ‘retired’, each saying that she had changed their life, or she would reiterate how grateful she was to have come to America, what a great country it was that had given her the opportunities for healing nations, and how proud she was to be an ‘American’ and part of a country that does so much in so many ways to help those in need around the world.
Mom, Omi, Frau - you taught all of us to live fully and aware, in understanding and compassion, with courage and integrity. Because of you, all of us are more...
