picture girls 9: A German Rose.

Hello lovely friends. I know I've been a tad cryptic in my last few posts. It's been a bit of an emotional time for me so I wanted to share a little bit of what has been going on in my life. Allow me to back up for a moment.

As many of you know, my mother was born and raised in Würzburg, Germany—she was an unexpected little bundle (her two sisters, Maria and Anneliese were around 17 and 16 when she was born). Their mother passed away when my mom was only 13 and so Maria became a real mother figure to her. When my mom was 16 she immigrated to the states to live with Tante Maria and Onkle Max in Michigan.

The Winter Girls: Maria and Brigitte (my mother).

Next to my mother, Tante Maria has had an enormous influence on my life. Growing up she was a bit of a tomboy—adventurous, strong-willed, with a great zest for life. She was always an amazing gardener and knows pretty much every wild flower and plant you can imagine. She adores animals and was one of those people who would nurse injured birds to health and could feed wild rabbits and squirrels right out of her hand. On top of this she was also very artistic and chic as can be—she only wore Chanel No 5 or Nina Ricci. Yep, she was always a super cool lady.

Tante Maria has always defied getting older. While her skin showed signs of age, tan and wrinkled from years outside, she refused to go grey and loved to dressed up (when she wasn’t out in her garden). On her 80^th birthday she climbed on top of a huge jungle gym at the playground and took a photo of herself coming down the slide “sliding into 80.” She also did somersaults and even played catch with Wolfie (who was 3 at the time).

Throughout her life she has always had a bad/irregular heart, but she refused to let it get her down and to be honest I never even knew it was an issue til recently. Last week, her heart finally caught up with her and she was hospitalized. We were told she had 3 days….3 weeks….maybe a month. I dropped everything and flew to Michigan to be with the family. It was extremely difficult seeing her in the hospital. She is quite frail and disoriented and so not herself. She was happy to see me and I’m so very glad I made the trip. She is still with us (once again defying the odds) but we’re not sure for how long. I wanted to share some images of her that I think capture her spirit and are how I know she would love to be remembered.

She and my Onkle Max having a beer in the backyard in Germany…I forgot to mention she played piano by ear and also the accordian—she would always say “I know it's not cool to your generation but back in my day this was THE instrument to play!” She is also an amazing whistler. I love that about her.

Climbing up this rock wall in her sundress….I love it! I did a close up so you could see her expression, but the wall was actually rather high up! No clue who that gent is.

The wedding. There is a great story about her outfit. As you can see the dress was made of a thick beautiful creamy satin. Her huge bouquet was also very unusual for the time. At the reception (which was held at her parents flat) everyone was dancing and she said “Whew, it is hot in here!” She began to unbutton the little buttons at the neck of her gown…and then to everyone’s shock kept right on unbuttoning. And unbuttoning. With a flourish that nearly gave some of the older guests a heart attack, she pulled the whole thing off and revealed that it was actually a little jacket—and the dress underneath was strapless! She danced the night away in style. Quite a lady, I tell ya. I've seen the dress and it's gorgeous.

She looks so Kate Spade here....in Germany with my cousin Maggie.

Tante Maria was a fabulous hostess and we always had really great parties at their house. Please note the Bunny cake. I’m guessing this was Easter...unless someone had a real fondess for rabbits and requested a special cake!

Check out the white go-go boots. Ooh lala! My cousin's First Communion.

Getting ready to fly to Miami for the holidays. Max treated them to First Class that visit. Dig that airplane! Max and Maria always seemed so glamorous to me.

Being of the 1950s generation, Maria was the consummate housekeeper and her home was always immaculate. This was one of my favorite rooms in their house. The walls were a deep lavender purple and the shades were purple and chartreuse green striped (so “now”!). Love that lamp and couch too.