Eleven years ago today, Patrick talked about some of his friends and their fascinating (and sometimes tragic) histories. Here’s the recording. We were having a late lunch in Santa Maria.

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I found a transcription made by my friend Chantal December 2011. Here it is.

P: … Francesca Joseph, who made the film.

J: Oh yeah, yes

P: She used to live in the middle apartment which was bought by her father who is a dentist. Right. And she’d come down and read plays because she became a director, right, of plays and then she became opera director and then she wrote films for BBC and then finally she decided to do a film about Mallorca. And in the meantime she got married to David.

P: Ok. And David’s father and stepmother came down and stayed in the Residencia and they said “Why don’t you go up have lunch with them?” and he said “I did” and they said “What are you doing now?”and I said “I’m doing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his stepmother said “My mother used to live with Watha who is Hiawatha who is the son of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

P: Or the grandson and their son because of the famous work of Coleridge-Taylor his “Hiawatha’s Feast” that made him famous. Made him free paths???

J: Hahaha

P: But it made him famous.

J: Yeah

P: Ok. And he was very young. Ok. So, now, so David comes down with her to think about buying the house and he says “Let me tell you why I have the money.” And it’s because David’s father, quite a womanizer, …. Famous for it, first wife, second wife, etc… This German woman, a blonde, in a black leather suit asked him to come to her hotel, she has a proposition. And the proposition is for him to sign a piece of paper turning over some property from the days of the Nazi takeover that used to belong to his grandfather. And David’s father being an astute man said “I would prefer to have these papers translated first, could you leave them with me.” And, in fact, signed a deal for a lot of money.

P: Dropped this property in Berlin or wherever, I think it was Berlin. And so all of the children got some of his money. So, David’s part was just enough to pay off my tax bill and buy the cottage on the end. That’s how he got the money.

P: So, but the fact that his mother, stepmother, her mother lived with Hiawatha. And I was working with Coleridge-Taylor and all of this stuff together and the movie and so … anyway. Ok never mind. But I don’t think I ever get that story in a right line.

P: Fred Greunfeld who is who I first played the flute in Deia yearrrrs ago in 1972 or ’73. Karl Mansker wrote a piece and I went up to Fred Greunfelds’s house. His family also had the Greunfeld Department Stores in Berlin and he got paid off something after the war.

J: Oh, so his family was displaced as well …

P: Ja, most of them were killed

J: and exterminated.

P: So Grunfeld was a famous department store like …

J: Like Woolworths or Macy’s

P: Ja

J: So this is why we are having a conversation in Santa Maria.

P: Santa Maria

J: Near Iglesia Parroquial according to that sign over there.

P: Ja. That’s the one we saw coming in with the big white roof.