nana and bali

my grandparents were called marianne and werner to family and friends, but to my brother and i they were nana und bali.  bali looks quite fit here in this photo of them in the alps as a young married couple.  but, by the time steve and i were born, bali had quite a beer belly and steve came up with the name bali for him.  the story goes steve thought his belly was like a ball (it was a taut beach ball belly that you could lay your head on) and that's how he came up with the name bali.  it was a sweet name for a sweet man who loved to joke around even when it came to his belly.  in fact, we really did used to lay our heads on it when we'd cuddle up with him and he'd tell us he was pregnant.  "listen," he'd tell us to put our ears close and then with his hand somewhere on the other side he'd tap with his finger to make the sound of the baby's heart beating inside.  when we were very little we believed him (at least i did - steve is 3 years older and was probably going along with the joke for me - but, eventually i knew too and we just loved having him fool us knowingly).  another classic bali trick was to take his empty soft boiled egg shell and flip it over back into the egg cup to look like it was a fresh egg.  he'd make a great act of going to cut into this egg, looking forward to another soft boiled egg for breakfast, and then exclaim, "oi!  was!  huch!  wo ist mein ei?" when it was found to be empty.  and then he'd chuckle along with us at the table.  bali was an entertainer.  he had an extraordinary talent to play the piano by ear - he was a natural jazz musician.  duke ellington, miles davis, errol garner, and above all - oscar peterson, these were his musical icons.  one of my favorite memories from my summers in germany was to be laying in bed upstairs falling asleep to the sound of him playing a lullaby on the piano downstairs.  it may be that some of his musciality was passed on to me, but unfortunately i didn't get the ear to play without notes.  my grandmother was the first to teach me a tune.  she played the accordion, and much to bali's dismay she taught me the flea waltz which i would play over and over and over again before asking my parents to sign me up for piano lessons.

nana was called nana because she didn't want to be called oma or omi, which is what most german grandmothers go by.  she became a grandmother in her fifties and felt too young for the title grandma.   she was such an elegant woman, always dressed in the finest of clothing.    i loved her deeply, from the way that she smelled, to the sound of her voice, her loving touches, her smile, her laugh, her very essence.  she was an amazing woman who i saw as being very kind and loving to all who crossed her path.  she was a modern woman for her time.  for one, she worked outside of the home.  she started out working alongside her father in the family business as a licensed distiller making apfelwein and other spirits.  then together with bali, they bought the business from her family and began their own ventures.  they lived in a house that was attached to their office and had a lager and other warehouse space.  it was a unique property that evolved over time from where my mom and uncle grew up as well as their cousins to a place where spaces were rented out for living as well as a mechanic's werkstatt, a doctor's office, and a painter's studio.  mostly i remember the mechanic's workshop and the lager where my grandparents stored their wares and a large mercedes truck for transporting the goods.  nana worked in the office with bali who sometimes went out to deliver in the truck.  they had drivers for this, but i remember our first summer in germany getting to ride in the LKW (german acronym for a big delivery truck) with bali.  i remember the long stick shift that rattled at stop signs, the rolling rumble of the diesel engine along with its distinct sooty smell, the skillful way my grandfather maneuvered the large vehicle on the narrow cobblestoned streets of their neighborhood, his seriousness behind the wheel, being businesslike with customers and at each stop introducing us to them.  nana and bali were proud grandparents.  people often mistook us for their children because they were so young.  we were so lucky to spend summers with them, they took us many places and loved us well.  i think that is why when i think of them my heart glows.