Wednesday, March 28, 2012

From Vienna With Love

When I started collecting hippos, I thought I would and could easily remember who gave me the hippo, or where I found it. Forgetting such important things seemed out of the question.... silly me. I don't know what happened. Maybe I thought the hippo-mania would not last that long, or my brains would work better. The result after many years? I own several hippos of which I haven't the faintest clue, how I got them. One of the reasons I started this blog was to write down the stories I still do remember... building an archive, better late than never, they say. When exactly I got this one, I forgot, but what I do remember is that my aunty Anneke (see post: The first), brought it from Austria for me. She found this hand made, little bit crooked looking hippo at a local market. She was going to revisit all the places, she had been with her late husband. To revive memories of their time together. She loved Austria (especially Carinthia) very much. Unfortunately, she became very ill during that trip. I felt so sorry for her, not being able to enjoy that special journey to the fullest. When she gave it to me, she complained about how difficult it was to find hippos, but that she was happy she found one.... For me, this was so typical for my aunty... being ill herself, but still thinking about other people. She passed away on Christmas Day, 2005. I still miss her very, very much.




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