My Aunt Elisabeth also presented an beautiful eulogy to my father:
My brother Peter --
It would take days to describe my brother Peter, what he stood for and what a big heart he had. Speaking for all of my siblings who are far away is not an easy task, but I will try.
Having an older sister and brother, I was spoiled often, but also had many opportunities of spoiling and teasing my 3 younger brothers, Peter, Walter and Gerhard, as older sisters are known to do.
Peter arrived in Georgia, on Dec. 27, 1962, and left this world on Dec. 27th, exactly 51 years later…. What a planner he was !!!
As any of you who have known him for a while must know, he was a real U.S. immigrant success story !! But I would like to share some of his early days with you first.
When Peter arrived in our balmy GA winter climate, having left wintry Germany, I am sure he was the only 19 yr. old in Cobb County who ran around shirtless and in shorts….. yelling at the top of his lungs, “Ich liebe dieses Land…. Es ist WARM hier…..I love this country…. It is WARM here.” Priorities, priorities !!! Sponsoring someone at that time was relatively easy even though I had only arrived 18 months earlier. All one had to do was prove and attest to that the person had a job, was not homeless, and would not become a ward of the State. Peter qualified on all counts but did not speak English; however, since he had completed his 3-yr. apprenticeship as a furniture maker, he got a job, working mornings in a cabinet shop and attended English classes in the afternoons. His first English sentence was, “brought to you by”….. So, I always knew how he had spent his spare time while I was at work.
But it was not too many years later that he was able to do the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzles without peeking.
After six months with me, he had to register with the Draftboard, so decided to volunteer instead in order to have a choice of areas of interest to be involved in. Since he loved communications and tinkering (more on that later), the Signal Corps was the perfect fit for him. Fortunately, he did not retain much of the “Slang-Lish” he picked up from Uncle Sam while serving his new country honorably for 3 years. After that time, his biggest worry being that the German Draft Board might get wind of his release, and he would be returned to GY to serve there. The reason being that he had heard that Army food was even worse there….
What Peter also brought with him was his strong work ethic, old-fashioned dependability, and determination to succeed (some might call it German stubbornness….. I wouldn’t know about that).
Peter was a life-long learner and never lost his curiosity to go into unknown areas of knowledge.
Peter was a tinkerer --- there were not many things he could not take apart but also fix. There was a time when as kids we had to hide our only alarm clock because he just had to go into the works repeatedly. I have a feeling that many of you, along with me, benefitted from his technical skills !!!
Peter loved to communicate and I think one of the hardest things for him when his brain and memory were starting to fail him was that at times, he needed extra time to articulate what he was trying to say and, therefore, was AFRAID OF NOT BEING HEARD….
One of Peter’s missions during the last 3 months of his life, and his New Normal, as he called it, was collecting smiles from anyone but especially strangers. The way he went about this was to start with a compliment. His goal was 2/day and you can imagine how surprising that might have been to some people, possibly even embarrassing to some. The amazing thing for me, as I witnessed some of these incidents, was how people responded in the most positive ways by sharing their stories, laughing, or even praying with him, as once at Home Depot. Now, who would take time for doing that in this busy World ???
Another dream was that he hoped to provide dialysis care to a PKD patient in India who his Nephrologist had mentioned to him.
He also loved to share jokes and got child-like pleasure from seeing people’s reactions to even the corniest jokes…. You might even have been on the receiving end of some of them.. While it is said that Germans do not have a sense of humor…..we do try !!!
Peter was a wonderful provider and loved to take care of his family. This included his extended family; he literally changed jobs in order to be able to work from home for years and take care of his aging and ailing father-in-law !!
One of his biggest worries he shared with me toward the end was that he might have left some loose ends undone. But even with his failing memory he was still able to take care of his investments so that his family would not suffer financially after his death.
I believe, one of the best examples of his considerate ways is the fact that Peter decided to leave this world before his family had to carry out the difficult medical recommendation to discontinue dialysis treatments.
Another example being, that his family find him with a very peaceful expression on his face !!
Along with his curiosity to learn new things, Peter loved to travel and discover new regions of the World, even when his dialysis treatments made this very difficult.
Regrettably, he was not able to carry out his wishes to spend more time by the Atlantic which he loved, as well as visit his home country and the birthplace of our beloved mother one more time. Whenever we visited Germany, our first and last stop would always be at our parents’ gravesite; and one of Peter’s last spoken words was “HOMESICK”…..
I am very thankful that all of our siblings were able to visit and assist in various ways in the care and comfort of our brother during the past 13 Months plus. As many of you may know, our sister Gerta left two weeks ago, as our brother Walter and his wife Brigitte, a retired Geriatric Care Nurse, arrived.
I am also thankful that I live close enough, as it has been a very special privilege to be able to assist in Peter’s care during these months. However, having a local home base these last two weeks made it even easier, so thank you Carol for arranging it. Thank you Hillary, Margaret, and Chris for helping me keep Peter’s favorite evening song going (Chuck’s humming too….). I do believe Peter felt, if not knew, we were there, singing for him !!! Quite an acapella group we were…. Even though we did not come close to Gerta’s soprano, Walter’s tenor and Brigitte’s alto voices !
Special thanks to dear Chuck who volunteered to give up part of his Winter break to help in such a loving, caring, and supportive way and make sure that I did not skip any meals…..!!!
As we leave our brother, I would like to share a favorite Native American quote which is printed in German on his wreath:
“I was here,
I had to leave,
I left few footprints,
But the wind heard my song.”
Thank you for coming.
Elisabeth Carter
December 29, 2013
The Program from the Service:
My brother Peter --
It would take days to describe my brother Peter, what he stood for and what a big heart he had. Speaking for all of my siblings who are far away is not an easy task, but I will try.
Having an older sister and brother, I was spoiled often, but also had many opportunities of spoiling and teasing my 3 younger brothers, Peter, Walter and Gerhard, as older sisters are known to do.
Peter arrived in Georgia, on Dec. 27, 1962, and left this world on Dec. 27th, exactly 51 years later…. What a planner he was !!!
As any of you who have known him for a while must know, he was a real U.S. immigrant success story !! But I would like to share some of his early days with you first.
When Peter arrived in our balmy GA winter climate, having left wintry Germany, I am sure he was the only 19 yr. old in Cobb County who ran around shirtless and in shorts….. yelling at the top of his lungs, “Ich liebe dieses Land…. Es ist WARM hier…..I love this country…. It is WARM here.” Priorities, priorities !!! Sponsoring someone at that time was relatively easy even though I had only arrived 18 months earlier. All one had to do was prove and attest to that the person had a job, was not homeless, and would not become a ward of the State. Peter qualified on all counts but did not speak English; however, since he had completed his 3-yr. apprenticeship as a furniture maker, he got a job, working mornings in a cabinet shop and attended English classes in the afternoons. His first English sentence was, “brought to you by”….. So, I always knew how he had spent his spare time while I was at work.
But it was not too many years later that he was able to do the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzles without peeking.
After six months with me, he had to register with the Draftboard, so decided to volunteer instead in order to have a choice of areas of interest to be involved in. Since he loved communications and tinkering (more on that later), the Signal Corps was the perfect fit for him. Fortunately, he did not retain much of the “Slang-Lish” he picked up from Uncle Sam while serving his new country honorably for 3 years. After that time, his biggest worry being that the German Draft Board might get wind of his release, and he would be returned to GY to serve there. The reason being that he had heard that Army food was even worse there….
What Peter also brought with him was his strong work ethic, old-fashioned dependability, and determination to succeed (some might call it German stubbornness….. I wouldn’t know about that).
Peter was a life-long learner and never lost his curiosity to go into unknown areas of knowledge.
Peter was a tinkerer --- there were not many things he could not take apart but also fix. There was a time when as kids we had to hide our only alarm clock because he just had to go into the works repeatedly. I have a feeling that many of you, along with me, benefitted from his technical skills !!!
Peter loved to communicate and I think one of the hardest things for him when his brain and memory were starting to fail him was that at times, he needed extra time to articulate what he was trying to say and, therefore, was AFRAID OF NOT BEING HEARD….
One of Peter’s missions during the last 3 months of his life, and his New Normal, as he called it, was collecting smiles from anyone but especially strangers. The way he went about this was to start with a compliment. His goal was 2/day and you can imagine how surprising that might have been to some people, possibly even embarrassing to some. The amazing thing for me, as I witnessed some of these incidents, was how people responded in the most positive ways by sharing their stories, laughing, or even praying with him, as once at Home Depot. Now, who would take time for doing that in this busy World ???
Another dream was that he hoped to provide dialysis care to a PKD patient in India who his Nephrologist had mentioned to him.
He also loved to share jokes and got child-like pleasure from seeing people’s reactions to even the corniest jokes…. You might even have been on the receiving end of some of them.. While it is said that Germans do not have a sense of humor…..we do try !!!
Peter was a wonderful provider and loved to take care of his family. This included his extended family; he literally changed jobs in order to be able to work from home for years and take care of his aging and ailing father-in-law !!
One of his biggest worries he shared with me toward the end was that he might have left some loose ends undone. But even with his failing memory he was still able to take care of his investments so that his family would not suffer financially after his death.
I believe, one of the best examples of his considerate ways is the fact that Peter decided to leave this world before his family had to carry out the difficult medical recommendation to discontinue dialysis treatments.
Another example being, that his family find him with a very peaceful expression on his face !!
Along with his curiosity to learn new things, Peter loved to travel and discover new regions of the World, even when his dialysis treatments made this very difficult.
Regrettably, he was not able to carry out his wishes to spend more time by the Atlantic which he loved, as well as visit his home country and the birthplace of our beloved mother one more time. Whenever we visited Germany, our first and last stop would always be at our parents’ gravesite; and one of Peter’s last spoken words was “HOMESICK”…..
I am very thankful that all of our siblings were able to visit and assist in various ways in the care and comfort of our brother during the past 13 Months plus. As many of you may know, our sister Gerta left two weeks ago, as our brother Walter and his wife Brigitte, a retired Geriatric Care Nurse, arrived.
I am also thankful that I live close enough, as it has been a very special privilege to be able to assist in Peter’s care during these months. However, having a local home base these last two weeks made it even easier, so thank you Carol for arranging it. Thank you Hillary, Margaret, and Chris for helping me keep Peter’s favorite evening song going (Chuck’s humming too….). I do believe Peter felt, if not knew, we were there, singing for him !!! Quite an acapella group we were…. Even though we did not come close to Gerta’s soprano, Walter’s tenor and Brigitte’s alto voices !
Special thanks to dear Chuck who volunteered to give up part of his Winter break to help in such a loving, caring, and supportive way and make sure that I did not skip any meals…..!!!
As we leave our brother, I would like to share a favorite Native American quote which is printed in German on his wreath:
“I was here,
I had to leave,
I left few footprints,
But the wind heard my song.”
Thank you for coming.
Elisabeth Carter
December 29, 2013
The Program from the Service:
| goerigfinal.pdf |
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