In her christmas letter, an old friend of Nadine expressed her wish to meet and share memories. Well, after a break of two years, the Requardt family and me can offer this to at least those of you who live nearby Stuttgart: thanks to the more relaxed corona situation, we can revive our custom of meeting at the Waldfiedhof!

We are going to meet at Nadine’s tree on January 28th, the sixth anniversary of her passing, at 2 p.m. Later on, we will continue at Cafe Schurr, a traditional coffee house in the south of the city. Please feel free to join us for one or both events.

A friend contacted me recently and told me, that Nadine just came to her mind quite powerfully. She asked me to visit the tree for her and put something there. So I cut one of the flowers Nadine had planted on our terrace once and sticked it to her nameplate. I was always wondering about who is still thinking of Nadine after more than five years. About me and her close family I have no doubts – but what about all those more loosely attached people? Well, seems like I’ve got an answer to this question now.

As far as I’m concerned, Nadine is still very present – even though I don’t think of her on a daily basis  and I’m not visiting her gravesite that often anymore. I do a lot of bikeriding and stop by there every now and then, but somehow she’s still on my mind all the time. Sometimes in the backyard, and sometimes in the frontrow.

In a just world, Nadine would have turned 53 today. In this world, all my mum and me could do for her was to visit her gravesite and stick a flower to the nameplate  at her tree. I will return there on Friday all alone, on the fifth anniversary of her passing, because this is the only way to commemorate her properly.

On Saturday, I will meet Annika and her family at the Waldfriedhof. Due to the Covid-situation, we can’t offer anybody to join us and have to cancel the annual gathering for the second year in a row. Another sad thing that doesn’t feel just either…