Before Maureen and Phil, met us in person, we only knew each other from letters.Letters that I translated for my grandma from English to German and vice versa, and then sent in reply. Sometime after my grandma and her husband (Karla and Harry) were often invited by Maureen, they flew to Canada.    When they came back I said I would like to come sometime too. And so it happened. Without even a moment's hesitation, Maureen invited me. As I said, she didn't know me. Our first meeting was at the airport in Toronto in 1998. The greeting was as warm as if we had known each other for a long time. It was like coming home.   Ten years I was allowed to spend four weeks of vacation there. It was a wonderful time for me. We did a lot of things. Although I had been an adult for a fairly long time, I was able to experience there what family can be like. In Germany, in my family, many things were different.  Maureen always encouraged me, never said that I couldn't do something. We laughed together when I mispronounced something because I only spoke my school English. We could spend hours in second hand stores and we always found something nice. Before I left for the vacation, Maureen always said, "Travel light."  She already knew why, because the luggage grew in a strange way. There are so many little memories, like eating corn on the cob on the porch, or at the Concordia Club, visiting a casino and of course Niagara Falls, camping in Dayton, the flea market in Scranton and so much more. Before each vacation I always counted the weeks and later the days until the time finally came. She was a wonderful friend to me, more than that. It was like a second home to me, a place to be happy.  I always cried, when I had to leave to fligh home and Maureen always said: Smile, you will be back next year. I knew when I flew there for the last time in 2006 that it would be the last time for me/us. Some things you just know, even though no one has said it. The time after that was hard for me, I missed everything so much. I often looked at the house and the surroundings on Google, then virtually "walked" there, just to see it. Although I often told myself I would go there again, just to say hello but Hamburg / Germany is not around the corner, it stayed that way. I missed Maureen and Phil very much. Unfortunately then, which was certainly due to me and the fact that my grandma died in 2012 and I moved twice, the contact is completely broken. I often said to myself that I should write Maureen and Phil Sr. but as is so often the case, I put it off until tomorrow. At some point the time was too far gone and I didn't dare to write anymore. And now it is too late.    Thank you dear Maureen for being there for me and enriching my life. Thank you for your honesty, your humor. I will always love you.   Your Novella  (please excuse the mistakes in my writing)