Dear Georgette,

The snow in the driveway to our house in Virginia,
I am told, is two feet deep. The roots of an adjacent maple
tree which sprouted, perhaps fifty years ago, from a
rhododendron planting, have subverted the road to such
an incline that even if the car could push its way through
the snow, it might well slide off into the hemlock hedge
on the other side. Discretion, accordingly, seems the better
part of valor; we shall stay in Belmont for at least another
week. Perhaps, if and when it's convenient for you, we might
begin exchanging thoughts about Margrit. If you're ready,
please specify by e-mail any date and any time you prefer.

I am, of course, prepared to try to answer any questions about
Margrit and her other family, - the one of which I am a part.
The questions you send by e-mail, I could think about in advance.
Spontaneous answers, on the other hand might be more revealing.

What I would like to learn from you, to the extent you are
willing and able to tell me, is what effect Margrit had on
the lives of yourself, your father and your mother. I would
like to be able to picture the days that you spent with her,
to test my hypothesis that in her effort to establish a family
of her own, Margrit in fact (unconsciously) mimicked her mother.
I have always blamed myself for some of Margrit's predicaments
presuming to have overshadowed her all her life. Are my feelings
of guilt justified, or are they mere effluents from delusions
of grandeur? About Margrit, I ask, how many friends are enough?
Can friendship be diluted by an excessive number of friends?
Is sensitivity to the effect of ones actions on others a linear
function? or is it a bell-shaped curve with an optimum, and
where is respect to such an optimal sensitivity was Margrit?

If in the wake of my questions, you're still willing to talk
with me, I anticipate our conversation(s) with appropriately
muted eagerness. Of course, I'm also prepared to accept
limitations you might choose to place on the topics and on
the fervor of our exchanges(s).

There's more about Margrit's life in Germany on my website:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jochenmeyer/aw/aw_index.html
If I'm correct in my surmise that it was a fateful involvement
that entwined Margrit in the lives of yourself,  of your father
and of your mother, then you will forgive me for my inability
to conclude with the conventional formalities.

Jochen