Doreen’s Uncle Ivo passed away last night in Hannover. He and his wife, Doreen’s mother’s sister Helga have been living in a small town outside of Hannover (Großburgwedel) for many years.
He was about 70. He was trimming a branch in one of his fruit trees when the ladder fell, and he was badly hurt in the accident. He was taken to the hospital, but never regained consciousness.
I had the good fortune to meet Ivo in 2000 when Doreen and I were in Germany. At that time he was already retired from his job as a high school English teacher.
All the time that Doreen was growing up Ivo was a Yugoslavian. But after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1990 he turned into a Croatian. After the return of democracy to Croatia he and Helga returned to Mostar several times. I can remember looking at their travel photos, where he was standing in front of a heap of rubble saying that was the Church where they got married. It was hard looking at photos of the famous bridge in Mostar that was destroyed, and then rebuilt. He was very laconic about the whole Croatian/Serbian war.
Ivo studied Kafka while in college, and taught English and Literature in the equivalent of High School near Hannover. When we came to visit it was like attending a class. Ivo was a very interesting and well-read man, and liked to explore different ideas with people. When we sat down to lunch, he would look at us and say, “I am going to give you a topic. The Death Penalty.” and then we would have to discuss that topic. Conversation would often drift to literature. I had (luckily) read some Kafka not too long before out trip, so I was very familiar with several of his stories when we sat down. Ivo seemed amazed that any American would have read any Kafka. It made for a lively conversation.
One evening Ivo asked if either of us had read The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. We owned the book, but neither Doreen nor I had read it at the time. Ivo started talking about it (which was fine) and Doreen mentioned that we did not want to hear the plot (there is a twist) because we both wanted to read the book. Ivo though this meant that we did not want to talk about the book at all. He said, “OK, Fine. We won’t talk about books. What do you want to talk about? The weather?” after we assured him that we DID want to talk about books, we got back on track.
Ivo and Helga had been married many years. They had two daughters (Judith and Jana) and three grandbabies (the only one I met was Louis. A beautiful little boy who must be about 17 now). Judith lives and works nearby (she is a teacher as well, if I remember correctly) and Jana is a psychiatrist living in Berlin.
While visiting Ivo and Helga, they took us to many interesting sites in the area. We went to Hamlin (of pied piper fame) as well as Celle, a town untouched by Allied Bombers in WWII. In Hamlin Ivo explained that the Pied Piper story was a legend, not a myth or a fairy tale. That meant that it had its basis in fact. And indeed, if you look up The Pied Piper, you will see that the children of Hamlin did seem to disappear sometime in the 16th century. Hamlin had an old cathedral that was destroyed in WWII. While in the church, we must have seemed a little upset by that fact. In order to make us feel better, Ivo said he was pretty sure that it was British, not American bombers that destroyed the church. I am not sure how much better we felt, but I am glad he said that.
When we dropped us off at the train station for our trip back we chatted as we waited for the train. As the train came, he smiled and told us how much he enjoyed the trip. “You have amused me” is how he left us.
Ivo, you have amused us as well. We will miss you.
