A forever love.

My parents met in a sandbox in Hamburg, Germany when they were 5 years old. (Their parents were friends and so the two played together when her family came up to visit from Bueckeburg). I don't know if it was love at first sight then, but when they met again years later, it was...for my dad anyway. My mom had been sent to Hamburg to work in a big fancy hotel as a cook when she was 16. When she and a boy she was dating would go for a walk at Planten und Blomen, a huge park across the street from my dad's family apartment on An der Verbindungsbahn, he'd peek his head out the rooftop window and spy on her. Even while she dated another, my dad unfailingly promised her he'd always take care of her. Eventually his persistence paid off and my mom fell in love with the tall skinny man wearing cowboy boots who dreamed of coming to America.
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My dad landed a job in Toronto, Canada that he hoped would bring him closer to his dream. He saved up for 8 months to earn enough money to fly my mother over. It was during this time, they wrote each other love letters, a collection my mother still has to this day. My father asked his brother, Karl Heinz, a boxer, to watch over my mother in his absence and he did. And she waited...

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Fifty years ago today, my parents walked hand-in-hand through the snow to the clergyman's office in Toronto to get married. Two witnesses were in attendance. When I first ever saw these wedding pictures, I asked my mother why?...why was she wearing a black dress on her wedding day and she replied simply, "It was the best dress I had."
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Toronto 1958

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It was a simple wedding and a simple reception, and even 50 years later, my parents opted to keep their Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration small and intimate. Along with my mom's beloved sister, Brigitte and her husband, Horst, who flew over from Germany for the occasion, they drove up the California coast to Seattle, to celebrate along with my mom's best friend, Anne. My mother is spending the day preparing a delicious dinner.

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So, Mammi & Papa...

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Tonight, as you all raise your champagne glasses and toast 50 wonderful years together, remember that we are with you in spirit. That we love you very much and are so proud to have parents that share a forever love...