Detlef married my best girlfriend, Carol. It was a shock at that time, Carol moving her New York life to Germany. But doing it to be with Detlef was an easy choice for her. I wish I could have seen him more through the years, but I am not a traveler and never made to Germany.
But I do have a funny memory of Detlef from one of his trips to the US. He and Carol came to my house (pre kids) and we were preparing to leave for dinner, also with my husband, George. Detlef looked around our house and his gaze stopped at our wedding picture, the large version, framed and hung in a prominent place. I remember laboring over which picture to select for this purpose - with a professional photographer capturing the day, we had A LOT of photos. The one we picked was set in the photographer's studio, made up to look like a garden. We loved it! Then - Detlef looked at it for all of 5 seconds and calmly said 'you know, this picture is weird because all the trees have shadows.' In fact, because it was shot in an indoor studio, the lighting and the backdrop created shadows against each and every 'tree' --- can't tell you how many times I looked at this proof and did not see this! And here comes Detlef --- within seconds, noticing a major flaw in the one large picture we are displaying from our wedding. We all had a good laugh about it!
Detlef, I hope you are at peace, pain free, watching sports, and looking down on your family - Carol, Lucas and Anya - keeping them safe and giving them strength to get through this.
