Freunde: Part 4
On Saturday, I had lunch with a fantastic woman that I affectionately call my "adopted German grandmother." Petra and I met through my church in Bremerhaven because we played music together for one of the Christmas church services. I remember when I first met her at the rehearsal, she was very formal and referred to me as "Sie," the formal word for "you." By the end of an hour, though, she had decided we could "dutz" each other and re-introduced herself by her first name. Since then we've always used the familiar "du," and sometimes she'll even call me "Enkel," the German word for "grandchild."
When I lived in Bremerhaven, Petra would invite me to dinner, and we'd spend the evening drinking tea and talking about our adventures. We watched Avatar together and snacked on candied ginger. We spent New Year's Eve 2011 watching fireworks over the Weser River from her 14th-floor apartment.
Petra astounds me because she is incredibly active for her age. She is a professional opera singer - a soprano - and still performs regularly even though she's been retired for quite a while. Earlier this year, she actually gave a farewell concert but then decided to go back to singing while on a cruise in the Baltic Sea. She told me how she and other tourists from the ship were listening to a street performer in Helsinki when she involuntarily started to sing along. The piece was a well-known Schubert work that Petra could probably perform in her sleep, and in that moment she realized that she was not ready to be finished singing yet. She returned to Bremerhaven after the cruise and is now preparing for a performance in one of Bremerhaven's churches next week.
What astounds me most about Petra besides her high activity level is that she undertakes everything alone. She never married or had any children, and she is among the most confident, self-assured people I know. It is no big deal to her to book a vacation and go on a fantastic adventure all by herself. Nevertheless, she has a huge heart. When we met this week, she proudly showed me a newspaper article about how she had sold 4,700 Euros worth of her father's oil paintings and donated the money to a children's hospice. Petra is so active and generous and just incredibly comfortable being herself. Seriously, I want to be Petra when I grow up.
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| Petra and I |
Petra astounds me because she is incredibly active for her age. She is a professional opera singer - a soprano - and still performs regularly even though she's been retired for quite a while. Earlier this year, she actually gave a farewell concert but then decided to go back to singing while on a cruise in the Baltic Sea. She told me how she and other tourists from the ship were listening to a street performer in Helsinki when she involuntarily started to sing along. The piece was a well-known Schubert work that Petra could probably perform in her sleep, and in that moment she realized that she was not ready to be finished singing yet. She returned to Bremerhaven after the cruise and is now preparing for a performance in one of Bremerhaven's churches next week.
What astounds me most about Petra besides her high activity level is that she undertakes everything alone. She never married or had any children, and she is among the most confident, self-assured people I know. It is no big deal to her to book a vacation and go on a fantastic adventure all by herself. Nevertheless, she has a huge heart. When we met this week, she proudly showed me a newspaper article about how she had sold 4,700 Euros worth of her father's oil paintings and donated the money to a children's hospice. Petra is so active and generous and just incredibly comfortable being herself. Seriously, I want to be Petra when I grow up.
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