Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
A wistful Bavarian memory

A wistful Bavarian memory

Last updated on: October 7, 2019 at 11:25 pm by Dan Peterson

A wistful Bavarian memory 2019-10-07T23:25:40-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Neuschwanstein Castle was designed and built on a romantic pseudo-medieval Wagnerian theme by the “mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

He was more than a decade older than I, and we’re only half-brothers. (His father left our mother a widow, and then, years later, she married my father.) Yet we were exceptionally close. At least, I think we were; I have no other siblings with which to compare him.

He would have been seventy-seven years old today. That’s hard for me to imagine. Of course, for that matter, it’s difficult for me to imagine him as a near-octogenarian, too.

My brother, Kenneth D. Walters — I never, ever, thought of him as a half-brother — passed away suddenly in March of 2012, leaving a hole in my heart that remains acutely painful still.

On a day when I’m thinking of him even more than I usually do, I share just one story about him that continues to make me smile:

I’m deeply grateful that, after years of trying to make it work, I was able to take my brother to my beloved Switzerland and to the Alpine area more generally. In fact, he enjoyed that first trip so much that we then did it again a second time.

One evening, on one of those trips — if I’m not misremembering, it was on a weekend, which means that many things were closed down — we were driving from Salzburg, Austria, over to Füssen, near the famous German castle of Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. We were running low on fuel, so he pulled in to a service station to fill up the tank of our small van.

When we were finished, we drove down the road a few hundred yards until our van shuddered to a sudden and initially baffling stop.

It turned out that he had put gasoline in the tank of our diesel vehicle. This was slightly strange because, at home, he drove a diesel SUV. And this car was clearly marked, in English: “Diesel fuel only.” It was just, he later reflected, that our rental van drove so smoothly and quietly that he somehow thought that it was a gasoline vehicle.

Anyway, it was a quiet evening in a small Bavarian village. There were no mechanics nearby. There were no vacancies in the local inn. Everything — there wasn’t much — was closed. It was growing dark. We were stuck.

Finally, we reached a mechanic’s shop that was open, and they sent a flatbed tow-truck to retrieve us and the vehicle and bring us all to their place. We rode backwards in the van as it rode on the flatbed truck. It was somewhat humbling. I sat next to Kenneth. I kept chuckling and making wisecracks. (I could afford to do that, because we had found a way out of the mess and, once it was fixed, we could travel on to our reserved lodging in Füssen.)

The thought that kept occurring to me was that, for once, I had not been the one who did this. It’s the kind of thing that I would do, but, in fact, I hadn’t done it. I’m the impractical, theoretical, useless-for-daily tasks dreamer. The little brother whom he had been caring for and helping out since I was small. Kenneth was the practical, competent one who had taken over the family construction business.

While we were there at the mechanic’s, having the engine pumped and cleaned out, the two guys there and I carried on an enjoyable conversation. They told me that such incidents were surprisingly common. We shared several anecdotes about dumb drivers and unbelievable on-road stupidity. Several times, a word that sounded like ih-dee-OTE was spoken amid smiles and laughter. My brother, who had no German, would demand “What was that?” And I would reply “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

I held this story over my brother until he died. He always looked sheepish when I would remind him of it. I looked forward to holding it over him for many years to come. It was such an absolutely spectacular reversal of our normal roles.

I miss him very deeply.

Previous Post

October 6, 2019

Cedar City, on Sunday, 13 October 2019; the Passing of an Icon; and a Nobel Prize for Utah?

Next Post

October 7, 2019 Lunch with the Turkish consul general

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Pentecost" mean in Greek?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Harvest Holy Day Fire from Heaven Fiftieth