Now 81-year-old Heidi Senert recalls how the friendship developed through the generations: “From 1958 to 1960, Marjorie, who was still married to Alfred Olson at the time, lived in my stepfather Joanna Ludwig Sehnert’s home in Rothenburg on the third floor.” 21-year-old Heinz Senert and his 17-year-old brother lived in the house. The Canadian Air Force was based in Zweibrücken Airfield in the 1950s and Alfred Olson worked there.
According to Heidi Senert – who was also 17 at the time and was already with her future husband Heinz Senert – the two families intermarried under the same roof from the start. On December 25, 1958, Charoline, better known as Shari, daughter of the Olsons, was born at Hemsberg Hospital. Little Shari was out on all floors of Rothenburg, her grandmother Joanna and Ludwig Sennert’s name and Umba, “still doing it today when she writes,” says Heidi Senert.
ompa remains ompa
In 1960, the Olson family returned to Canada, the parents later divorced and Marjorie married her second husband, Donald Gill. According to Senert, Marjorie, 85, and her daughter Shari, now 63, live in British Columbia, Marjorie in Kelowna on Lake Okanagan, and Shari in Sparrowwood on the Alberta border. Shari is now called Semolini, he is married, has two sons and two granddaughters. “Marjorie and Shari write regularly and have always been in touch,” says Heidi Senert happily.
In 1997, Canadian families Jill, Semolini Hines and Heidi Senert visited Zweibrücken for two weeks. “We have gone on many trips together, for example to Trifels, the Rhine, and Bavarian castles.” She remembers Heidi Senert, who had never visited Canada. But her 63-year-old boyfriend’s correspondence relationship means a lot to her, families have always kept each other updated and sent each other small gifts. This is how a German beer glass went on a long trip to British Columbia.
“Communicator. Entrepreneur. Introvert. Passionate problem solver. Organizer. Social media ninja.”
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