Our friend Larissa and her loving German family.

I met Larissa in high school, senior year. Her sister, Jennifer, was also in one of my classes. Jennifer approached me and mentioned that I knew her sister, Larissa. If I remember correctly, I laughed at her. Jennifer was tough and totally a tomboy, and sure I was sort of afraid of her, while Larissa was sweet and timid and so friendly. That year, Larissa and I ended up going to prom together with our dates and had a great time. About a year later we met up again, not randomly, at Target and so began our adventure together, we even referred to moments together as part of our “movie” because it was always a pretty great journey. It didn’t take long for us to become buddies and we were even sometimes referred to as “Marissa”, or something like this because you rarely saw one without the other. Anyway, after some time, during one of my many transitions, Larissa’s family became my “lucky” host for about a month or two… or three. Anyway, I quickly fell in love with them and I think sometimes they love me too.
The last three days were spent with Larissa’s uncle, Dieter and his girlfriend Angelica-I felt the same warmth thousands of miles away in Germany with the Walcker clan as I do back home. In fact, I felt somewhat humbled by this crazy affection I felt directed towards me simply because my buddy Larissa and her family is so incredible. We visited Oma, Larissa’s grandmother, on Saturday for a short while and made plans to visit again on Sunday. We were embraced and welcomed and as per German custom, asked about our “impression of Germany” so far. Oma had pictures of Larissa and her family all over the room, mostly stacked against the window that looks out into Tuebingen. She was trying to place me in the picture, wondering exactly what my role was in Larissa’s life. She asked if I was in the wedding, I said yes, and she exited the room and back in a minute with her pictures of Larissa and Chris’ wedding. I was really impressed by Oma and her incredible ability to recall exact dates, a trait Larissa has certainly inherited. I pointed myself out in the pictures so she separated out the photos and was so happy to have made the connection. She was the cutest little Oma. We chatted for a short while and made plans for Sunday.
On Sunday, we had brunch at Dieter’s and headed a few houses down to Oma’s house and were very warmly greeted by Tante Claudia, who was hanging her head out of the balcony window looking up and down the street waiting for us to arrive, again….so cute. I waved and she grinned from ear to ear, shouting “Mariella” with that wonderful German accent that rolls the R’s in the back of the throat that just makes me so happy. She came down the stairs and opened the door and gave me the tightest, biggest hug ever and was so happy that it stunned me a bit. She said that she was told last night that “Mariella, Larissa’s friend was in Tuebingen visiting” and that we had met in 2002 at the wedding, but she couldn’t remember so it kept her up all night. As we stepped into the house she stopped me and looked at me for a while and said “Mariella, Larissa’s best friend” and this, of course made me smile from ear to ear. She had put it all together. Again, Oma stood at the door waiting and smiling. She welcomed us in and we sat and talked. Of course we talked about Larissa and she told us how Larissa always addresses her letters to Oma Walcker, which makes her so happy. Claudia even said that she gets a little jealous when Larissa is around because she and Oma never leave each other’s side. It was an incredible thing for me to stand there and see that these people appreciate the very things I appreciate about Larissa; her loyalty and compassion, her love for her family-Oma even referring to her as the “chief” of the family. It was all a very surreal experience.



Eventually Craig, Claudia, and I said goodbye to Oma and headed back up the street to Dieter’s, who had a “big program” for the day. We were going to explore Hohen Uruch, castle ruins that were about 30 minutes away. Claudia was so happy all day and there was no way for her to hide it, she smiled and giggled and it was such a great thing for her because it took her mind off of some of her own burdens for a day. We all walked to the waterfall before the castle ruins, and Craig and I walked further up to the castle ruins leaving Dieter and Claudia to catch up a bit. The place was beautiful. I am sure that Tuebingen is great during the summer, but I wouldn’t want to miss its autumn season for the world. Tuebingen is covered with trees and right now they are an array of colors; light green, dark green, red, brown, orange, yellow, it’s absolutely breath taking. In Tuebingen I rekindled my love for trees and looking at them from underneath, my favorite perspective. As we sat at the bottom of the waterfall I took some time laying on a log starring up the tree and into the sky watching the leaves fall, one at a time, gliding and twirling all the way down to the earth-it was great. There were many people on the hike to the waterfall but the hike to the castle was less busy, so we were glad for the slight degree of difficulty (mostly because of the steep gradient leading up to the castle) because it meant less people. We took loads of pictures, as usual, but really, none of them do this place justice. It is best summed up by one observation: there were loads of kids there, most of which took advantage of all the crevasses, hidden rooms, winding, stone staircases, and tunnels with their sticks as swords and bandanas around their necks, a place where kids can be creative and destructive and kids without interruptions or distractions. We had an excellent picnic, packed by Dieter, packed with the essentials: knife, fresh bread, tomatoes, sauerkraut, a half of an onion, Brie cheese, Gouda cheese, Limburger cheese, and mustard. We hiked back down, were treated to an ice cream by Claudia and headed out.
Larissa and family, thanks for sharing your family with us, we had an excellent time and were given an incredible, very personal tour of Tuebingen, we have loads of stories about your dad that we will have to share with you sometime.  Danke.