The weekly newsletter from an acquaintance arrived today.

Included, the two locales mentioned are Athens GA, where Stephen and I live, and Comer GA, a very small community a half-hour away.  Before going back on the lam, I had considered offering here a link to a fine essay on the irreparable USA, but opted for this instead.

Think I’ve made the right decision.

 

Dear All:

The Comerian Bakery will be closed this Saturday, November 16. I am flying to Germany to attend the funeral service for my oldest brother Achim, who passed away on October 31 – the Day of the Dead.

I am glad that I visit him a few weeks ago when he still could go out with me for an Italian dinner, and reminisce about the past.

He was unlike me: organized, everything was planned ahead, beautiful penmanship, a dapper dresser (ascot, tweed jackets, always engulfed in a cloud of eau de cologne so dense that one was worried about an explosion when an open flame was near). In common we had the disapproving risen eyebrow and the ability to laugh about ourselves.

The trip will be bittersweet, but his life was spent and he was ready to go, knowing that there was no way back to a dignified life.

I’ll try to get a teaspoon of his ashes, will put it in the ground when planting a tree for him.

Sad as it is, please enjoy your days. Achim loved Comer and Athens, and like him, we should always say yes when we get invited for a gathering of old friends or have the chance to make new ones.

Yours,

Uwe