ALONG THE WAY - Part Three: Germany

FREIBURG, GERMANY
August 2-9, 2022.


No square-box buildings here in the centre of Freiburg , a university town with population about 230,000, situated in the south-west of Germany.


Freiburg has a beautiful old Cathedral (building started circa 1230). Around the Cathedral there is a market-place and a maze of narrow streets .

Madge and I were in Freiburg for a full week. We enjoyed exploring the town,  usually at cooler times because we arrived during a heatwave. On one day, the temperature reached 40 degrees. I wore shorts & tee-shirts for the whole week and, in at night, a single sheet was all that was needed.


We came to Frieburg to visit Madge's younger brother John O'Brien, who lives in the St. Carolushaus nursing home (seen in the photo above). John's health has been in decline for many years because of Parkinsons and also, probably, because of a condition called Lewy Body Dementia which gradually degrades control over physical-movements. These days, John is confined to a wheelchair. He can't hold a glass to drink and he needs to be spoon-fed. 

Despite these afflictions, John was so pleased to see us. Even nursing home staff were commenting on how happy he was during the week, making our eventual parting all the harder.

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OLD FRIENDS
John was a close friend even before I met his sister Madge back in the early 1970s in Basildon, Essex. John and I used to listen to music for hours  - all kinds of music. It was John who introduced me to classical music - Beethoven, Mozart, Elgar and other composers. 

I've never known anyone to listen to music with such intensity as John.


So, it was good to have a couple of listening sessions with him. We listened to a CD I brought with me ... a compilation of 'home-recordings' from the 1970s, including original songs by our old friends Martin Thorne, Paul Jeffrey, Jan Arie and Shirley Cupit.

The CD also contains five wonderful songs written by John and sung to his own accompaniment on nylon string guitar. 

The Revox reel-to-reel tape recorder I used back then enabled sound-on-sound recording. In one song ' Level Headed Feeler' John improvised multi-layered vocal harmonies. Beautiful.

In another song I've Waited For You Both So Long (written for me and Madge) John sings these words:

   And only in this fire of life
   Do angels fire their spears 
   into this day.
   Does God explain himself
   in peace and pain?

God knows what John was thinking and feeling as he listened intently to those songs from nearly fifty years ago. Sometimes he would turn to me and start to comment. But, sadly, his voice is now so soft and fuzzy it is difficult to understand what he is saying.

John in 1978, in the loungeroom of our home in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

Among the staff at Carolushaus are a few African nurses who seem to be especially good at making John laugh. One of them, Daby Biop, playfully called him "Mister John ... king of the house". Then he started playing John's guitar and singing. 

Daby Biop. John is at the other end of the table.

I joined in too, singing some musical variations on the words:  
"Mister John ... king of the house".

Next thing, we heard John's voice burst into the song, singing out his own response. 

Laughter erupted around the table. Improvisation continued for quite a while. In the photo below you can see John's fingers beating on the table .


On other visits I played John's guitar and sang some old singalong favourites - There Is a Ship, Scarborough Fair, House of the Rising Sun ... and so on. John's lips would be moving as the tunes and words came back to him. The music is still in him.


It's not so hard to make a few visits over a limited period, but John's friend Insa, seen here, is in for the long haul. She has been visiting John on most days for years now, feeding him, generally looking out for his welfare in the big nursing home. 

We are relieved and grateful to know that she is there for John - a frail Irishman in far off Germany.

NEXT:
More on Freiburg town in the next instalment. 

And more bikes!

Love and best wishes for health and happiness.
Peter

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