Sunday, 31 January 2021

UPDATE ON THE DROWNING

The man who drowned in our bay on Thursday was Friedrich Bohme (Fritz).
I'm not sure exactly how old he was but believe that he was about 90.
I've seen him walk past our place almost daily and to often row his dinghy up and down the bay.
Only a couple of years ago he was still climbing Mount Aubry the small mountain behind our place. It's a hell of a climb with many, many steps that make much younger people puffed.
Here's the obituary that I found online:

BOHME, Friedrich Karl As a result of an accident on the water. Fritz, much loved husband of Pat, Father, Grandfather, and Great Grandfather. A celebration of Fritz' life will be held in the Chapel at Maunu Crematorium, Cemetery Road, Maunu, Whangarei on Wednesday 3rd February 2021 at 2:30pm. 

 

I would have liked to attend the celebration of his life on Wednesday but cannot. I like that term ' a celebration of his life' which seems much better than 'funeral'. Fritz was an ocean swimmer and, I think a world class yachtsman. He recently - as in a couple of years ago attended the FINA World Masters* swimming event and must have been just about the oldest person there. I'm hoping that there will be an article about him in the media as he seems to have had an interesting life.

There was talk of a Rahui being put on the bay but I'm not sure if any local kaumatua did this. There was some discussion of it on the Neighbourly FaceBook site with one commenter saying that when she raised the question with someone swimming or boating where Fritz died the person said 'who cares".


Where are we going as a society?





* The FINA World Masters Championships is organised by FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation [English: International Swimming Federation]). More than 9,000 former athletes and water sports enthusiasts from 96 countries participated in the 2017 tournament, including athletes as old as 97 years of age.
As a competition where water sports lovers gather from all around the globe it contributes to further developing the world of aquatic sports.

3 comments:

Richard (of RBB) said...

"There was talk of a Rahui being put on the bay but I'm not sure if any local kaumatua did this. There was some discussion of it on the Neighbourly FaceBook site with one commenter saying that when she raised the question with someone swimming or boating where Fritz died the person said 'who cares".

That's sad.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Yes, I despair of the selfishness and mean spirits of so many people nowadays. Communities are failing.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

"I really do not find many selfish people in society. I find mostly kindness and concern.
The Christian church is a community that is not failing."

This flabbergasts me.
Robert, you repeat a whole lot of 'love thy neighbour' crap that you get fed to you at church and then you repeat all of the cruel and 'selfish' mandates that come from the catholic church (anti abortion, anti women, anti gay, anti-socialism etc.)Some of the things you say under the guise of christianity and pretending that it comes from Jesus is disturbing, cruel and contradictory.

Your comment that the christian church is a community that isn't failing is naive and arrogant. To me, it's right (pun intended) up there with Q Anon and Trumpism conspiracy theories. I think it's long overdue for you to grow up.