this was in a note I wrote to Tante Käthel's children after she died:
Since I lived in the US all my life, the only sibling of the Herrmanns I really got to know well was Tante Renate. But Tante Kaethel was the one I saw and got to know the best after Renate. Tante Käthel visited us in the US twice when I was a child. It was always so special when one of the siblings visited because we did special trips (like to the beach), had extra good meals, and got to have cake every day (as you know daily coffee and cake is not a typical tradition in the US).
I remember once visiting your parents in Zwickau when I was a child. Your mom fed us abendbrot. I remember your dad had a special order to eat the bread in. I remember asking why it was so important to eat the bread in that order and why each bread had a certain topping. Certainly your parents helped me understand the "real way" to eat German abendbrot.
Later when I was an adult and visited, your mom always had me over and offered me great food and conversations. I was always amazed at how well she remembered names, dates, relationships, and how the family fit together. This was a trait that my mother also had. I know we will all miss having your mom around to answer questions for us. When I returned to the US I remember enjoying telling my American friends that I had an aunt who still rode her bicycle to town in her 80s.
Once when I was in Germany with my mother I rented a car and your mom and my mom and I went to visit Seifen. We got terribly lost on the way, mostly because my mom and I were trying to follow some map program we had printed off on the computer instead of using your mom's knowledge of the area. Your mom was completely comfortable being lost in Saxony. I had the impression she had a story about each place we drove through and was of course able to get us to Seifen and back quite easily without any help from Google. She was also so delighted when it rained and we saw a rainbow. In general, I found her an excellent travel companion because she was able to find some beauty and good in everything that happened to us. Once when the sisters had to wait for me to tour something that required more walking they had to wait quite a long time. I remember my mother complained about the long wait, but your mom just said how nice it was to sit and visit with her sister and how glad she was to see me again.
