By Denise Etheridge
I was reminded last weekend how fortunate I was to have had two lovely German ladies in my life.
My late mother-in-law Maria, and her best friend, Annalise, now reunited beyond the veil, were on my mind as I took photos at Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic Church’s annual fall festival last Saturday.
Maria and Annalise were devout Catholics, both immersed in parish life. They helped with every bake sale, every Friday fish fry and every fundraiser. They sang in the choir, visited the sick and decorated the church before Christmas and Easter.
I saw women at St. Paul’s that resembled Maria and Annalise. Not in look, but in deed. Many of the festival booths were run by ladies I would describe as wise women of a certain age. My peer group, in fact.
Maria always had good advice to share. She would tell you what you needed to hear, not what you wanted to hear. Yet she wasn’t harsh, just straightforward. And she was most often right.
Annalise also made you feel that you mattered. She remembered to send cards for birthdays and wedding anniversaries. She even sent me cards for the Jewish holidays until her health, and memory, declined in her later years.
They, like church ladies everywhere, were mothers and grandmothers devoted to their family, their church and their greater community. The sister-like pair generously gave their time and talent to benefit others. Maria and Annalise continued to nurture long after their own offspring left the nest.
They were toddlers at the end of World War II, and teenagers in the late 1950s when they met and married two young American G.I.s. Both young brides had to learn a new language and culture when they came to the states to settle. And they had to adjust to the stresses of being spouses to active duty military members.
My husband was eight years old, his sister just four when Maria had to carry on for six agonizing weeks not knowing if her husband was alive or dead. Norman was listed as missing in action in 1968. His young family lived in a little brick house near Fort Benning (Columbus, Ga.) while he served in Vietnam. Norman had been injured and was flown out of the battle zone before his platoon came under fire. Most of his brothers-in-arms did not survive. The army finally informed Maria that Norman was recuperating from his injuries in a military hospital in San Francisco, Calif.
My children often talk about Maria and Annalise during the holidays. We remember their hospitality and culinary genius when we dig into a delicious German cheesecake baked by Annalise’s granddaughter. Nikki follows the same recipe her grandmother and Maria followed. The sublime love they put into simple traditions lives on.