A Tribute to My Uncle Walter

• Cantankerous
• Hilarous
• Super-intelligent
• A wealth of experience

No matter what anyone might be saying, Walter might at any point look over and half shout, “Well no, no, no, now wait a minute…..” and then, after silence had come to the room with a long pause, his expression would change to a half-smile, and I never could tell if the next thing he would say was going to be serious or a joke.

Walter’s memorial service was yesterday.  We did not attend as we are in New Zealand.

Walter is the last of the original Goldschmidt family to have passed on.  This is the family I’m descended from, the family who came over from Germany in 1938, leaving because they were Jews living in Nazi Germany.

My earliest memories of Uncle Walter come from a family trip to California.  I was 10 and this trip would be my first time on an airplane.  We stayed with Uncle Walter and Aunt Susie at their home in Burbank, California – swimming in their pool, eating fruit from their trees, and listening to Walter and Susie laugh.

They loved to laugh together.

And Chinese food…  No trip to visit Walter and Susie could be complete without a visit to one of their favorite local Chinese restaurants.

I remember eating a sweet red bean jello dessert of some kind.  It was the first time I had had sweet beans.  I thought it was weird that I had liked the dessert so much.  I didn’t really care for other kinds of beans I had eaten before.

In 2003, Carrie and I planned a trip through las Vegas to California (to visit Walter and Susie, go to Disneyland, and visit my mom’s cousin Steve).

The week Carrie and I got to spend with Walter and Susie felt like looking at ourselves at some undetermined point in the future, people we’d like to be — two people who, after a lifetime of joys and sorrows, still found something exciting in every moment and found something to laugh together about every day.

We went shopping at Trader Joe’s, ate fruit from their trees, swam in their pool, and even spent a day at a mud spa with Susie and their daughters Laura and Ellen (my dad’s cousins).

Walter had a chuckle out loud at my expense that I was actually going to the spa with them.  When I started to defend myself a bit, he quickly came back with his “Well now, wait a minute… (LONG PAUSE)… … (Half-Smile)…” and then went on to talk about the benefits of actually relaxing and that a mud bath could be a good way to do that.

After that week, Carrie and I talked frequentlyabout our time with Walter and Susie, and how we needed to get back to California to see them.

We didn’t go together again until 2010.

We got to see Walter and Susie when they came to Colorado for Brian and Jamie’s wedding, though didn’t spend as much time with them as I would have liked.  Weddings are good times for seeing lots of people, but it’s hard sometimes to spend quality time with just a few during a wedding.

But I got to visit Walter and Susie after our wedding  in 2007 when I went to Los Angeles for a conference.  The time was all too short, but I got to spend two days with them which included my eating of a Kielbase sausage that Walter teased me should have feed half an army.

In his mock-German voice he said:

“You would sink zhey don’t feed zihs boy nothsing.”  This time with Walter and Susie also included, of course, a visit to a Chinese buffet.

Walter and Susie returned to Colorado twice after that… once to say goodbye to Oma while she was alive, and once for her memorial.

Oma’s death was especially hard on Walter.  He didn’t let on to that very much in the moment, but Oma was his little sister, the one he had always cared for and protected and tried to shelter from some of the harsh realities of being a Jew in Nazi Germany; and the harsh realities that came with relocating to a new country with a new language in a big city; and later on the harsh relaities of divorced parents (in a time and country when that was socially reprehensible).

The passing of Oma was hard on all of us, but it was very hard on Walter.

Our last visit to Walter and Susie’s was brief… all too brief… always too brief.

Can we ever spend enough time with those who have so much to teach?  Whose lessons were learned through a lifetime of bittersweet: the deepest of the bitter and the sweetest of the sweet?

I would have liked more time, and thought I was going to get it.  After all, our 5 hour stopover in Los Angeles between Denver and Tahiti was not enough time to go get Chinese food.

Walter had recently experienced a series of strokes and wasn’t really up to going out.  But even after a series of strokes, Walter (Wally, Walt) was still Walter – still joking, still laughing, still making the best of the situations life was throwing at him.

Living life with regrets is not a good way to live, and I’m so glad to have that afternoon we spent with Walter in May.

I do wish I had figured out how to spend more time with Walter and Susie, but I am really grateful to have had their influence and example in my relationship with Carrie.  Through Walter and Susie, I’ve also been able to connect to my German and European roots in a way that many people of my generation haven’t gotten to do.

I don’t know if it’s the way that Walter would have wanted it, but I’m deeply saddened by the loss of one of my favorite people, and I’m left feeling incomplete, like there was more I could have gotten and understood.

And all I can do about that is look forward to the next time when we will eat Chinese food together again.

Continue reading "A Tribute to My Uncle Walter" »

What Carrie and Jonathan Say

Find out what Carrie and Jonathan “say” (apparently).

Continue reading "What Carrie and Jonathan Say" »

Dinner with the Clendons

Two weeks ago, we rented a car to go to Akaroa, New Zealand.

On our way to Jucy car rentals, we got off the bus two stops too early and ended up walking.

We then saw a car pass us by, loop around, come back, and pull up alongside of us.

Barbara stopped and asked if we wanted a ride to the car rental place… it wasn’t far, but she was nice enough to randomly stop, pick us up, and drive out of the way to take us us to the Jucy car rental.

We gave her one of our cards, she checked out our website, and dropped us an email inviting us to dinner.

Dinner was this past Friday night.

It was REALLY nice to be welcomed into their New Zealand family.  Her husband Jeff, and their daughters Alhana, Julia, and Grace were so welcoming and nice.  It was wonderful to get to sit by their fire and exchange stories.

They are really great people, and it was a powerful experience for me to meet a family so willing to share their lives and their warmth with complete strangers, without wanting, expecting, or needing anything in return.

Thank-you Clendons for your warmth and hospitality!

Continue reading "Dinner with the Clendons" »

In Colorado For 5 Days Only

Being back in Colorado for 5 days has been a rushed but wonderful time.  Since landing, we’ve pretty much been on the go.

We rented a car and drove as far east as the Colorado/Nebraska border (3 1/2 hours by car), as far north as Fort Collins (3 1/2 hours back west and north), as far west as Federal and 6^th Avenue, and as far south as my parents house in Aurora.

In 5 days, we’ve driven over 1,000 miles, seen family and friends all over the state, and have tried to make the most possible of every moment.

I feel like we’ve accomplished that in a lot of ways.

At the same time, we

Continue reading "In Colorado For 5 Days Only" »

Cuarenta (40): Ecuadorian card game of choice

Those of you who know me know that I like to play cards.

Those of you who know me well, know that about the only thing I’m actually competitive in, in life, is cards.

Blame it on my grandmothers…. Both of them.

My family spends Thanksgiving playing cards.  And, I learned how to count and add by playing cards.

The most famous card game in Ecuador is:  Cuarenta (that means 40)

The object is to play to 40 points.

The idea:

Continue reading "Cuarenta (40): Ecuadorian card game of choice" »

Merry Christmas!

For those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, we hope you will take some extra time today to spend with family members and/or loved ones.

We are enjoying our time back in Colorado… though with the traveling we’re doing around the state to visit family, we’ve been running around like crazy since getting back!
We hope you enjoy this special day!

Continue reading "Merry Christmas!" »

Top 5 Things I’m Looking Forward To In Colorado

I don’t really experience homesickness, because I always feel pretty excited about what’s coming up, about the future, about where I’m going next.
So this is the 5 things I’m looking forward to at this moment, knowing I’m returning to Colorado tomorrow.
This is being written from a hotel outside of San Jose, Costa Rica called the Adventure Inn.
#1. Water
-Hot Water (lots of nice, hot water in the shower)
-Tap water. At least in Colorado, drinking filtered tap water is safe, cool, and nice. Although we’ve drank tap water in Costa Rica and Panama, it’s nice to know that the water in the states is safe, whereas in Central America, I’m never 100% certain.

Continue reading "Top 5 Things I’m Looking Forward To In Colorado" »

Life With A Teenage Boy – Part 2

I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with Zach.
On Sunday, we hit up a Rockies game and had fun negotiating for amazing tickets via trading up the tickets we bought from scalpers. We got to the game a little late (after the beginning of the game), so we had room to negotiate with the people selling tickets outside the stadium. We bought two tickets in the lower level of the outfield (below the Rockpile for those of you who know the Rockies stadium) for $10/ticket, $20 total, and then traded those up for two tickets that were two rows behind the Rockies dugout for an additional $35, meaning we spent $55 total for two tickets right behind the Rockies dugout.
(We could only have been closer by 1 row to the first base line.) We were so close that Zach was actually able to get a baseball from the game tossed to him by one of his favorite Rockies players.
Really a cool day!

Continue reading "Life With A Teenage Boy – Part 2" »

Life with a teenage boy, part 1

Jonathan and I are fortunate in that I convinced my brother and sister-in-law to “loan” us their middle child for a few days. I love spending time with my nieces and nephews, and the longer the better. So, after an eye exam with the hot eye-doctor on Thursday, I drove to Holyoke for the weekend.
I had a fun weekend. It’s always great to get to see my mom and Larry, my three grandparents, as well as my brother, sister-in-law, two nieces, one nephew, and this time my sister! It was a fun time had by all. I even got to kidnap Alyssa, my oldest niece, and take her out for ice cream one very hot afternoon.
On Saturday, I left to come back to Denver, and got to bring my nephew, Zach, back with me. Now, Zach is one of my most favorite people in the world. It’s been so fun to watch him grow up. The whole drive (3 hours), Zach and I talked. It’s so great when you can have a 3 hour conversation with a 13 year old.
I just have to share a few snippets of that conversation with you.
Zach: “Carrie, I’m going through a rough time in my life right now.”
Carrie: “Why?”
Zach: “I’m learning what it’s like to be famous. You see, all these girls like me. They keep calling me and texting me. There are even some in the same family who all like me and are fighting over me. So, I really can understand why famous people don’t like to be famous.”
A bit later…
Zach: “These modern girls these days aren’t afraid to tell a boy that they like him.”
Ahhh Zach. You’re so great that it’s no wonder girls are waiting for you. You’re smart and funny and respectful, and a great kid. I love you. Thanks for talking with me.

Continue reading "Life with a teenage boy, part 1" »

Happy Independence Day 2009: A Poem

For those of you in or from the United States, I hope you enjoy a wonderful day with family and/or friends.
This year, I took a little time to reflect on the holiday and wrote a poem that I wanted to share.
Happy Independence Day!

Continue reading "Happy Independence Day 2009: A Poem" »