Calm in the midst of the waves - for Andrea

I was asked to contribute a few words to my sister Andrea’s farewell.

In writing them, I grieved not only her, but the bond that only began to form after our father’s death last October.

These are those words.

I leave them here, unchanged.

Today, I am allowed to weep, Andrea, my sister.

Not step. Not half. Simply sister.

I thank you for our meeting in this life. Especially for the time after our father’s death.

You carried that love within you. I was able to feel it - the same energy that connected us to our father.

You called him Dad. I called him Dieter. And yet it was the same depth, the same quiet strength.

These last weeks were precious to me.

Not because of your illness, not because of your suffering.

But because I was able to witness the dignity with which you lived.

Your love for life. Your care for the people you loved.

And the way you continued to offer steadiness, even on your final steps in this life.

What you gave to the world was not loud.

It was your loving presence.

Your calm strength, radiating peace in the midst of the storm, giving others courage.

You once described it yourself

mediis tranquillus in undis:

Calm in the midst of the waves.

This grounded energy, this inner clarity, this love for the homeland of the heart -

it lived in you, in our father, and it binds us still.

Andrea, I am grateful.

And I am proud to call you my sister.

In life. And in death.

While writing this, a feeling from the movie with Robin Williams „What Dreams May Come“ arose.

Not the story. Just the soft knowing:

That love doesn’t end when form ends.

That presence can remain, even beyond language.

And that sometimes, to stay close… is enough.