Ich bin ein [Texas-Born] Berliner

Dr. Charles E. McClelland of the University of New Mexico is working at the University in Berlin this summer and graciously reported on the gathering for dinner on June 17 of the Berlin circle of Paul’s friends who have been helping him since his stroke.

Paul seems to be recovering nicely from the stroke. I spoke with him as recently as earlier today and his speech has definitely improved, though his problem with balancing himself with which he was troubled even before the stroke resulted in his taking a nasty fall backwards down some stairs. He has, fortunately, almost fully recovered from that mishap. Though still unsteady, he does seem to be improving as time goes on.

Here are a few of Dr. McClelland’s comments.

As promised, here’s a little report on Paul and the dinner in his honor last Wednesday (17 June).

To my surprise Paul himself appeared in the Restaurant Entrecote, a nice French place that happens to be just around the corner from where I live in Mitte. There were over a dozen people present, and the meal (and Paul) lasted about 3 hours. I am attaching a few photos I took.

Paul’s friends at the dinner ran the gamut from people who had only recently met him and were looking after his dog Max to old fraternity brothers. One of these, Gert Dyckerhoff (who lives in Bavaria and travels a lot on business), hosted the dinner. I gather he, Dr. Moeller and the lawyer Ms. Salein (who were not present) had gone out to visit Paul earlier in the day and decided to work toward getting Paul back into his apartment, with appropriate look-in help, in maybe 6 weeks. I think that tells you a lot about the visible progress Paul has been making.

I learned a few tidbits about Paul’s biography I had not known. When he was a student in Munich (long before I was!) he had been one of the first Americans to be invited to join one of the exclusive duelling fraternities! As a university historian I am aware how important these are, but I had no idea (as one of them explained over dinner) that theirs has a fund to help out “brothers” in difficulties. There were in all four of his “brothers” at the dinner. That is very reassuring to me.

Charles, I know I speak for everyone who depends on this blog for news of Paul when I say how much I appreciate your report and your sending me the pictures.