Waltraud M. Puhle

FAMILIA

My mother had a lot of reinventing in her life. There are a lot of versions of Waltraud that each of you know her as – Mom, Mama, Mamma, Ma…, Grandma, Oma, Tante Waltraud, Wally.She grew up in Diespeck, Germany. She used to go clubbing with her sisters back in the day, but then she wanted the American dream. My father, who grew up in Berlin, had immigrated to the US as a teenager, his boss connected him to my mom and they wrote letters back and forth (my parents, not his boss-that would be weird). After a while, she came to America not knowing a lick of English. Reinventing - My parents later got married and she became a wife. Reinventing - A few years after that, she had my brother and then me. Then she was a Mom and what a Mom she was.She was a fun mom-threw the best birthday parties at roller rinks or at the house with balloons taped to the walls.At Christmas, she always did it up with the decorations-but you couldn’t turn the tree lights on until Christmas Eve. “Not on my German tree”, she’d say. I was watching an old home movie recently and it reminded me that when she laughed real hard, she’d snort, like a pig and then would laugh even more.She supported us as a Mom in so many ways. Going to our band concerts, to watch us in parades for marching band, she was always there. And she worked her tail off to put my brother and I through college. Reinventing - As Jeff and I got older, my Mom went to night school, had a career at a pharmaceutical company and studied the Constitution in order to pass her citizenship test and finally became an American Citizen. My mom threw me a going away party when I left Long Island to come to Binghamton for graduate school. My brother got engaged, my parents split up. She had to reinvent herself once more as a single mom with grown and flown kids.But with her grown kids, came grandkids and her reinventing herself as Grandma or Oma.After a few years as Grandma/Oma, she moved up to Binghamton. She loved the mountains, always found them peaceful. After I had little Max, we all went on many trips to Ross Park Zoo. We even went to the zoo in Syracuse because they had giraffes, Mom’s favorite animal.And when I had to go back to teaching after having Caleb, Grandma was the one who got Max off the bus and played with Caleb and brought him to preschool. She won two gift basket raffles at Caleb’s preschool Christmas party – what are the odds of having your raffle ticket drawn twice for two different gift baskets? The next reinvention – Wally. I didn’t really know my mom as Wally but I guess it was way easier to spell and pronounce than Waltraud. Wally lived across from the Vestal Senior Center for many years. Took her a while to go the senior center – she said it was just a bunch of old people playing cards. I said, “Well, Mom, you’re getting kinda old and maybe it’s fun to play cards”. I don’t think she ever played cards other than Old Maid with my kids. But she did finally get over to the senior center and reinvented her new life, making lots of friends there, going on lots of local trips and being a skilled teammate in their Wii Bowling League- they even had matching T shirts.She was happy. She recreated her life in the mountains with new friends and lots of visits form her kids and grandkids. My mother clearly had many chapters in her life. I celebrated her 80th birthday with her at Bridgewater Nursing Home about 6 weeks ago. I’m proud of her for reaching that milestone.I’m proud of her for being a strong example of resilience.I’m proud of her for showing me how you can reinvent your life over and over to find happiness.And when God decided it was her time to join her brothers and sisters in Heaven, there was this peace around her. Peace that she had worked so hard to play all these roles and now it’s time to rest and recreate herself as an angel watching over us. Always in our hearts and in cardinals and butterflies and that gentle breeze that makes you feel all warm and cozy. I love you, Mom. Rest in peace. And take those angel wings and fly.