Friday, February 23, 2024
Ottie was an amazing woman! She was the daughter of my dad‘s cousin Max. That made Ottie and I second cousins and there was 27 years between us. Growing up, I wasn’t that close to her, but over the last several decades, she and I became more than family, we developed a deep friendship. I admired her for so many different reasons, the love she had for her family the dedication she had to all her different interests. Not the least of which was her bowling leagues and the Paterson Sangerbund. the latter, a German-American singing society that both her dad and my dad belong to, and derived massive amounts of pleasure through both song and friendships for the majority of their lives.
Over the past couple months, I’ve visited Ottie many times, either by myself or with my wife Manny. On a couple occasions we even brought our two year old granddaughter, Alexis to visit as Ottie really seemed to connect and enjoy the time with the her. Well, the last visit we had with her was about a week and a half ago. It was just Alexis and I and Otti seemed extra happy to see her. At the end of our visit Alexis went over and gave Ottie a big hug without being prompted. Ottie said “I love you” to Alexis and she said “I love you” back. It’s bringing tears to my eyes now revisiting this moment, because even though I wanted to deny what I kind of knew, it seemed the innocence of a two year old sensed that this might be the final goodbye. I actually had the good luck to record that beautiful moment on video!
Manny and I send our deepest love and heartfelt prayers to all the family including her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She took such a pride in talking about you all.
With all our love,
The Kattwinkel’s,
(Alex and Manny)
