GREAT EATS HAWAII: A VERY SPECIAL THANKSGIVING

Sunday, November 27, 2011

A VERY SPECIAL THANKSGIVING

HEIDE AND DAD GET SOME MALASADAS
FROM LEONARDS BAKERY IN HAWAII

A VERY SPECIAL THANKSGIVING
WITH DAD AND HEIDE
CAMBRIA, CA

We traveled to Cambria, CA to enjoy a few days with my Dad and his lovely wife Heide. This turned out to be one of the best trips of our lives. Truly wonderful. The drive to Cambria was beautiful. Traveling down California Highway 1 gives you time to think, reflect and talk about life and how blessed we are. Once in Cambria we always marvel on how beautiful and peaceful the place is. What a different world from Hawaii and the 10-12 hour work days. We settled into Dads house amongst the Pine Trees and chirping birds. So relaxing. Keli put on a show playing the piano and guitar and Dad and me watched some football and talked while Heide and Shirley worked in the kitchen. Heide is from Germany. She grew up very poor at a time when the world was at war. Her house in Berlin was bombed in 1943. Her mother was pregnant with her and they were moved to what is now the Check Republic where they lived with her two older sisters. The sisters cared for Heidi when American tanks and Servicemen rolled into the streets in 1945. It was a difficult time for Germans. They were required to wear armbands like Jews in the interment camps. Living on watery Pea Soup, they lived with diarrhea and her sisters begged and stole small bags of apples to sustain them. The family cried together as they were placed on a train to Regensburg and then to Dresden in open cattle carts. The Russian soldiers were given permission to steal and rape the German woman and simply kill the men. The nightmares of this time still haunt Heidi's sisters. They were placed in a Russian Intern Camp where her mother went from 150 pounds down to 90. Her mom fainted and went into a coma which allowed them to be transferred to a Red Cross Camp back in Dresden. With a small bribe to a female doctor, they were able to get a message to their Grandfather who was able to bring them back to Berlin. Living in a Russian occupied section of Berlin was horrific. Especially during the long cold winters. At night they would try to warm their small two room apartment with their breath. For birthdays they were given a small handful of coal. The family often ate acorn cakes, steal or beg for food and barter for items to survive. The family knew they had to leave Berlin to survive and left separately. Heide and her mom left in 1949 on an American Air Lift that children called the "Candy Bomber". Heide's dad died when she was 10 and after a brief stay in Sweden the family was back together again in Hannover in 1955. Heidi won a scholarship to the best school in town. She learned Oxford English, French and Latin. At 16 Heide met a Turk named Engin. They fell in love and were married. She taught German to Turkish officers and then they moved to Germany to apply for entrance to the U.S.A. Four years later, in 1968 both found jobs in the United States. Engin worked for General Dynamics and Heide for Xerox in Rochester, NY. They moved to California to find a more welcoming place to live. Heide took a job as a Stewardess for Western Airlines. Engin returned to Turkey. In 1976 Heide went to work for Northrop where she remained for over 22 years. This is where she met my Dad who was also working at Northrop. The work romance turned into a 30 marriage that has been a blessing for not only my Dad but our entire family. Heide is a giving and loving woman who always puts family first. She understands pain and what is like to be poor and hungry. This gives her a thirst for life that I love seeing and experiencing.