This text is an automatic translation from DeepL Translate.
Martin’s passing…
As the pain subsides, the smile of memories, heals!
When our fathers were serving the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, they had to meet every now and then during their childhood. I have a vivid memory of an event in the papal house in Sandby/Sweden in the 1960s. After the annual so-called Children’s Colony on the island of Öland (Swedish: Öland), the summer pleasures were sometimes enjoyed by the families of the pastors and also by the pastors, the bachelors. On that occasion, the family of Pastor Paulis Urdza, who had recently given birth to his brother Peter, the family of Pastor Ringolds Bērziņš, if I am not mistaken, Pastor Augusts Ķele and his wife, and the bachelor Pastor Kārlis Zuika (then still from England) visited the dean’s house. It was a nice summer and the dangerous famous Swedish mosquitoes, not loving the gentle sea breeze of Öland, made us sick. We lived in a friendly, fraternal, but above all joyful way!
One day my brother Ints overheard a conversation between Martin and the bachelor pastor, Karl Zuyka. The pastor asks Martin if he also helps the mother who has recently given birth to his little brother Peter. To which Martins says yes! Helping to make a “pipi”! The pastor and the bachelor (from England) didn’t understand what a “pipi” was, and asked Martina to spell it. The answer was short but clear: it’s an “ah” from the front and Papa calls it “darī”!
Martin and I didn’t really get to serve and be friends together, like our fathers, and so this adventure of our time in Öland will always be a fond memory for me. In my mind’s eye I see Martin sitting on the steps of the Sandby parsonage!
“God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, for before Him all are alive.” (Lk 20,38).
Brūders Klāvs