\u201eSure, I\u2019ll get you some anti-rust paint!\u201c \u201eI\u2019ll bring your portholes to Berlin, and then I\u2019ll pop over for a weekend and fit them for you.\u201c<\/em> (That was the plan for the first weekend in November). Whenever I rang him, he was in good spirits and relaxed. After I\u2019d asked him twenty questions about how to do this or that, he\u2019d always reply in a friendly, joking manner: \u201eWhat, is that all? Is that all you want to know?\u201c<\/p>\nIn short: over the last few months, he\u2019s given me help and support like no one else. Whenever I tried to thank him, he always waved it off: \u201eI won\u2019t take anything from you \u2013 just a coffee!\u201c<\/p>\n
Bernd has looked after me so much \u2013 now I\u2019m worried about him.<\/strong> I received the news at lunchtime today that he\u2019d had a stroke. It\u2019s affected his speech centre and the right side of his body. He\u2019s having an MRI tomorrow, and then we\u2019ll see what can or needs to be done. \u201eThe Bear\u201c Bernd in a hospital bed with beeping monitors \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t fit. He needs the wind and waves and ships all around him!<\/p>\nWhat new things have I discovered about myself?<\/strong><\/p>\nI tend to become very attached to people quite quickly.<\/strong> I found myself on the verge of tears time and again today whenever I thought of Bernd, his family and the men at his company, to whom he is like a father. And yet I\u2019ve only known Bernd since July. But I\u2019ve grown fond of him through what must be well over 100 phone calls and emails:<\/p>\n\u201eHey, look, I\u2019ve found this welder on eBay \u2013 is it any good?\u201c \u201eOK\u201c Or: \u201eHey, I\u2019ve run out of two-component anti-rust paint \u2013 what am I going to do about the floor now? \u201eUse linseed oil varnish, paraffin and thinner, paint the floor with a brush and wipe it down with a cloth.\u201c <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd because he always greeted me \u2013 no matter what the weather was like (a constant source of banter between Hamburg and Berlin) \u2013 with a warm \u201eHello, sunshine\u201c.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m hoping and praying that everything will turn out all right. And I\u2019d be grateful if you could say a prayer or two for Bernd.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
War ich heute lebendig? Ja…. Was habe ich Neues \u00fcber das Leben entdeckt? Wieder neu: Wie zerbrechlich und verletzbar Leben ist. Im Juli habe ich Bernd kennengelernt, Hambuger…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,643],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leben-meistern-swing","category-schiff-kerstin-hack"],"featured_image_data":null,"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"Leben meistern - Swing"},{"value":643,"label":"Schiff und Auszeit an Bord"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kerstin Hack","author_link":"https:\/\/63cfd2629054c8f4hack.de\/en\/author\/63cfd2629054c8f4\/"},"comment_info":1,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"Leben meistern - Swing","slug":"leben-meistern-swing","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":552,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":552,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Leben meistern - Swing","category_nicename":"leben-meistern-swing","category_parent":0},{"term_id":643,"name":"Schiff und Auszeit an Bord","slug":"schiff-kerstin-hack","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":643,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":214,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":643,"category_count":214,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Schiff und Auszeit an Bord","category_nicename":"schiff-kerstin-hack","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"ase":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45531,"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions\/45531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"2013-08-03](\"https:\/\/kerstinhack.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-08-03-08.11.03.jpg\")
<\/a>Once again: just how fragile and vulnerable life is.<\/strong> In July, I met Bernd, a seasoned sailor from Hamburg. He owns several ships and is currently refitting three more. He knows his way around ships. And he\u2019s incredibly helpful. \u201eSure, I\u2019ll get you some anti-rust paint!\u201c \u201eI\u2019ll bring your portholes to Berlin, and then I\u2019ll pop over for a weekend and fit them for you.\u201c<\/em> (That was the plan for the first weekend in November). Whenever I rang him, he was in good spirits and relaxed. After I\u2019d asked him twenty questions about how to do this or that, he\u2019d always reply in a friendly, joking manner: \u201eWhat, is that all? Is that all you want to know?\u201c<\/p>\n