Dear Anna,

Thank you very much for your e-mail with the poem "March Encounters".
Our family is well "according to age", as my father used to say,
translating from the German. Yesterday photos of you and your family
visiting my parents cam to light from under a pile of papers, and made
my think of you and, of course, especially of your father.

I find that writing about family is a tricky project, because one
can't be objective, one mustn't be critical, and one must, above all,
avoid promoting oneself by indirection.

The bare facts are that my older granddaughter, Rebekah, now 24, is
enrolled in veterinary school, learning to take care of animals.
My younger granddaughter, Leah, age 17, is a junior in high school. She plays
the French Horn and has just been accepted in a National Youth Symphony
Orchestra with which she will be touring Europe - Moscow, St Petersburg 
and London in the summer.

My younger grandson, Benjamin, age 20, is completing his second year at Dartmouth
and hopes to become a pediatrician. My older grandson Nathaniel, who is 22 years old
and will be graduating from Yale this spring, is looking for opportunities to study
and practice orchestra conducting. Three years ago, he assembled largely from music
students with whom he had played, an orchestra which he conducted in Belmont's
Beech Street Center on various occasions. They played to a full house, among other
pieces, Beethoven's Third and Seventh symphonies, Mozart's 29th Symphony, and Dvorak's
Cello Concerto. The audiences were invariably pleased.
On the Internet I discover somewhat to my chagrin, more than one
Nathaniel Meyer. My Nathaniel is represented playing Haydn's Trumpet
concerto at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h98f6auZzYg
conducting the second movement of Beethoven Symphony No 5 at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGI_4nafqww
conducting the Yale Symphony in the Prelude und Liebestod
from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ZOnHz_9oE&feature=youtu.be
Nathaniel would like to find a position as assistant conductor in
some regional orchestra. He has applied to the Portland (Maine) Symphony,
but may not qualify because he will have only a bachelor's degree.
He is also applying to various graduate programs in conducting.
He is on the lookout for other opportunities. Have you advice or suggestions?
(His address is nathaniel.meyer@yale.edu)

Klemens and Laura have been working hard, but seem to be happy and healthy.
About six months ago, Margaret had another mild stroke from which she has
made a good recovery. I do almost all of the housekeeping. I've also been
writing - altogether in German. Publication as you may or may not know has 
been revolutionized by digital technology and it is now possible at no cost 
to publish "print on demand" books which no one reads or buys, e.g. of
http://www.amazon.com/Ernst-Jochen-Meyer/e/B00B5CK30Y
only 3 books have been sold. I'm not at all disappointed. Failure is my
specialty, and I relish the irony.

Finally, as I may or may not have reported to you, I'm engaged in a fascinating 
do-it-yourself legal contest with the Town of Nantucket, MA over plumbing which 
I installed in a house that I've been trying to build, plumbing which the Town
wants torn out because I'm not a plumber.  I'm not suggesting that it's worth 
your while, but details are accessible to you at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jochenmeyer/litigation/litig_index.html

Dear Anna, I acknowledge that all this is much much more than you bargained
for when you sent your e-mail. Please forgive me. I hope and wish that you and 
all your family are well.

Jochen