"Momma...look...pork chops....***sigh**** I miss schnitzel..."
"Mom, do you miss driving as fast as you want?" Me: "Yes...especially when I throw on the brakes for the policeman hiding in the bushes..."
"Mom...do you think we will ever go back to Germany??" Me: "I really hope to unpack THESE boxes before we do..."
"Mom...I want to get married in Garmisch - on top of the mountain and ski down in a white ski suit with a big veil attached to my helmet!" (ahh....destination weddings....)
Romanticizing plagues military families....plagues us, I tell you!
And so...there I was....missing Deutschland. Missing the people. The history. Garmisch.
Why hello there happy German people in your traditional clothing! You look amazing...and very robot like.
Wow, fellas! You are adorable and very German and walking down the middle of the road...
Did you hike all of the way up there to blow your horns with the city down below? Well...bravo guys! You rock!
Andrew took this in Garmisch as we were driving down the street...yep...just your "run of the mill" landscape...
The way they make rules and follow rules and the way that you don't have to worry about them knocking you in the head in the Wal-Mart parking lot and hi-jacking your mini-van.....you know, that kind of stuff...when I HEARD THIS ON NPR. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming...
Apparently Germany is better at recycling more than milk cartons and plastic wrappers...they also recycle grave plots. Yes...you rent your plot and when your rental time is up the family is sent a letter and then if you don't respond to THAT...they put a note on the tombstone. A little yellow note...
Now, according to the report, the little note on the tombstone comes as quite a shock to whomever finds it and the graveyard post-it can say whatever the author wants. Maybe it says, "This grave needs someone to pay the rental fee..." but in the report, one of the notices said, "Time to rest in peace has run out." Whoa...RUN OUT? Isn't it a guarantee that when you die...peace is the perk that just keeps giving!? Isn't it called "Eternal Rest"? Am I dreaming?? Your lease is up...they roll you to the side...grind up your tombstone and place the next person IN YOUR GRAVE? Good heavens...it's not really safe for me to miss Germany, now is it?
All of this may shock and dismay you - but having been a German resident for 8 of the past 17 years...I am amused. Why am I amused and not shocked?? BECAUSE THIS IS HOW THEY ARE! I lived it and even though some Germans are even taken back by their own rules, somehow they "get it". The rules are the rules are the rules!
And so I sat the kids down and told them the report I had heard and they all BUSTED out laughing!! Andrew said, "That is sooooo German!!!". And we gained a tiny bit of perspective.
Yes...we miss Germany and 99% of what WAS when we lived there...but rental resting places is NOT one of the things we miss. It's one of the things that makes us shake our head and laugh...and remember the people that hosted us for so long. Oh, Germany...when you "out German" even yourself you endure us to you like a crazy uncle.
Now, may you all rest in peace when your time comes...and pay your rent when the rent is due.
Amen.
http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/11/recycling-graves-in-germany/
2 comments:
I know it sounds kinda crazy but it does affect some American families as well recently at Chapel the Chaplain talked about the graveyard outside the gate but next to Daenner it is where back in the 70's when children and adults passed away at Landstuhl the military would not pay to send them back to the states so they had to be buried in German that is where they were buried and it looks like the rental period is up and they are trying to raise money so that someone is not buried on top of their loved ones. Very sad really.
I am sorry to hear that, Allison! Why am I NOT surprised that 1. the military would not pay to send the people home to be buried and 2. that the German government wants to re-use their burial plot.
Who is trying to raise money? The chaplains can't...are the families trying? I think this sounds like something that needs some serious attention...can you please email me a private message?
Christy
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