Rest in Peace Papa 🖤
December 6, 1942 – October 23, 2025
«My father’s love is the quiet light that will forever guide me home.»
Today is my mother’s birthday and though she is no longer with us, I believe she isn’t celebrating alone. My father has joined her on the way to celebrate together, just as they always did in life.
My father was the most loyal, honest, and authentic person I have ever known. A truly good soul, kind to everyone, never speaking an unkind word about anyone. He loved nature, he loved taking the train, he loved to travel and he loved horses and riding. He was sociable, funny, and always there for others. For me, he was simply the best dad anyone could ever wish for.
We shared wonderful journeys together, just the two of us, and later also with my daughter. We relived so many stories and memories on those trips.
Among the photos I’ll show today is one from Rome, our last trip together. The Eternal City will forever be tied to him in my heart. During that trip, I gave him a very special gift, a papal audience at the Vatican, an experience that filled him with joy.
Then there was Iceland, where we traveled all around the island with Anouk, and the US including Chicago, where he came to visit us while we lived there.
And there’s another very special photo from 1985, when I was ten years old. He took me with him on a business trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg because he knew how much I loved ballet. One evening, he took me to the Bolshoi Theatre, in the presence of Mikhail Gorbachev, to watch a ballet performance. That’s who he was, thoughtful, generous, and always finding joy in making others happy.
He passed away through a tragic accident. After breaking his thigh and undergoing surgery, his dementia made him forget that he had been operated on. When he tried to get up, he fell and suffered a severe head injury. The swelling and bleeding became too much for his body.
I was with him through his final days in palliative care, day and night. It was heartbreaking, but also a beautiful farewell, peaceful, full of love, just like when my mother passed away.
They were each other’s great love. I have never seen a couple with such a deep, genuine bond. So it does not surprise me that, only two months after my mother’s passing, my father followed her.
To both of you, I wish you joy and peace up there. Celebrate, laugh, and keep watching over us.
I am forever grateful and proud to have had such wonderful parents.
Dad, I love you. Always.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht