A short e-mail message from Patrick to us kids, dated 23 Dec 2014:

Hello All,

Don’t know why, maybe because recently I am in very retro-autobio mode, I just remembered a moment in Wiesbaden, probably 1963?

I carried a large package to the Post Office and sent it to Florida. It was Christmas, and the package contained what I thought would be the perfect gift, though now I wonder. It was a collapsible puppet stage, with a selection of hand puppets to go with Grimm’s fairy tales. It was a pretty grim time, actually, since it wasn’t long since Kennedy was shot, among other sad things of that time.

If the package ever arrived, who knows? I can’t remember which address I used, though it was most likely out of date. Even if it did arrive, it was probably completely wrecked, and maybe there would have been an import duty, which Donna probably could not pay. (Now all the world’s a stage, and we are all puppets.)

All this by way of saying Merry Christmas, 2014. Sorry I couldn’t have kept you out of harm’s way, but in the end you all came out of it. Me too?

Lots of love to you all.

Patrick

Patrick Meadows 1934 – 2017.