A Truly Magnificent Character

Hubby was viewing my blog the other day.

"All of your posts are about death," he said.

"That is not true. Remember the election? That post wasn't about death...it was political."

"Death and politics," he said.

Hmmmmm.

So I told myself my next post would not be about death. We even went to a Who concert and I wrote a great blog about how air guitar is not an acceptable form of dancing.....because it is not.

And then it happened.....

The world lost a great, great man.

This man.......



Bomber....

A truly Magnificent Character....

For those who don't know, I spent a part of my 20's in the German Alps; a place called Garmisch Partenkirchen.....Garmisch for short...because it's hard to pronounce Partenkirchen after several Hefeweizen.

Seriously, I lived here......pretty cool, huh? Don't ask my how my German is.....noch ein bier bitte? That's about it





Garmisch was a collection of American backpackers, American Soldiers, college grads looking for the next best thing and people who went by the names like Shred........Kinky......and Bomber.

I knew about Bomber before I met him. He was a legend, a consummate traveler who would work the summer months in Garmisch and travel during the winter. He had been doing this for years with his lovely, beautiful travel companion, Goldie.

Bomber and Goldie......I am not making this up.

Everyone knew Bomber and Bomber knew .... everyone. Not only did he know everyone, he engaged with everyone. He would take a group of young Garmishers to Pamplona every summer to run with the bulls.

I never ran with the bulls. I'm more of a jogger, I trip easily and bulls scare me.

But maybe I should have. 

Bomber made you want to run with the bulls, live life out of a backpack, experience this magnificent earth and the amazing people who we share it with.

Bomber traveled.

And Bomber took pictures.

Amazing pictures that captured the beauty around us everyday and the beauty thousands of miles away. I remember watching one of his slide shows; he didn't say a word (which was rare), he played music to the photos and we watched as the wonders of the world, through his eye, unfolded before us.

He encouraged us all to travel, to see this great world, to test our limits....he was an ambassador for life.

A couple years ago he lost his love, his beautiful Goldie- it was unexpected and entirely too soon.

I hadn't seen Bomber for years but would follow his posts on Facebook and it seemed from thousands of miles away, that his heart was broken.

Of course it was.

A couple months ago Bomber was diagnosed with a terminal cancer that had ravaged his body. It was incredibly hard for us Garmischers who were losing a legend.

But I also know that those us who have lost a Love do not fear death. I would like to think that Bomber looked at this as the next great journey and more importantly, a reunion with his lovely Goldie.

On Sunday, the world lost Bomber, our great ambassador for life.

And we cry. And we remember a great man. We share our stories and our photos.

And he is still bringing our world together. Our community of Garmischers have reunited, posted memories and photos of a time when we ran with bulls, saw the pyramids in Egypt, hiked the Zugspitze.

And shared pictures like this:



Oh good Lord!

I'm in the corner, on the left....no grey hair, thank you! Bomber is in the yellow up top.

Of course he is.

In this life, we meet many people every day. It is those who encourage us to be more than we thought we could be, who encompass a joy for the beauty that can be seen out of the ordinary...those people are our precious guides to this world. 

It is always tragic when we lose one. 

Thank you Bomber- to your next great journey.