Wißmann Time

We’re really doing a criss-cross of the country.  And it has been very convenient and wonderful to have been able to use Patrick and Gaby’s other car for this occasion.  So after a couple of rest days at home in Rheinstetten again, we mosied on to Munich.  We met up with Rita Wißmann, one of my mom’s girlfriends back from their nursing days.  We had invited her to come to Dresden with us so that they could have some girlfriend time and an adventure together.  Rita was very excited and had invited her two children with their families and we all got together for dinner.  I have not seen Martin and Eva for eons either.  And it was very nice to meet their families too.  We went to a restaurant that was a couple of kms away and we carefully traipsed over there on the icy, snowy sidewalks.  Martin came back with us to Rita’s flat for an après-restau drink.  The two girlfriends were very excited about their sleep-over together and after they declined our help for getting things organized, Martin, Larry and I headed out.  Larry and I were staying at a hotel three doors down since Rita’s flat is too small for all of us.  Larry and I had just gotten settled in for a good night’s sleep when the phone rang.   It was my mother.  Rita had fallen and couldn’t get up.  When we got there, we discovered that we couldn’t help her.  Having been a nurse and all, I guess, she already knew that she had broken her hip.  She had tripped over the carpet that had buckled when organizing the sofa bed before my mom could warn her about it.  And so we had to see her off to the hospital and call Martin.  She was in good spirits as we’ve always known her to be.  We left the next day with heavy hearts and sorry about the unfortunate turn of events.