A letter from a friend of Mutti

The ministers who did the service for Mutti forwarded this letter to us.

Katie Crawford (mother of Rev. Sonya Sukalski, a Unitarian Universalist minister who is a member of the UU Church of Berkeley) wrote:

What sad news to hear of Elke’s death. My sympathies to her family.
They were very dear to her. She was dear to me, a connection to my youth.

I met Elke the first time when she came to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1954.
We were at a slumber party given by Mara Bockis. She had just arrived
from Germany. We were in the 8th grade at North Street School. She
barely spoke English.

I didn’t see her much in high school.

I met her 40 years later when she came with a speaker for Los Alamos
National Laboratory. He was speaking about a California venture capital
company and just before he began his speech we were chatting. He told me he had his girlfriend with him and mentioned that her name was Elke and she
was from a suburb of New York City. When I heard the name, Elke, I asked
if her maiden name was Pehmoeller and he said yes. I went out to dinner
with them later and reconnected with my friend from so long ago.

Elke came to visit with me for about 5 days in Los Alamos a few months later and we had a great time getting reacquainted. She was on a trip to bring some of her art work to The Waxlander on Canyon Road. A few years later I visited her
at her studio in Berkeley and we toured in Sonoma. She talked of her brother,
who was the first in her family to come to Connecticut. She told me about
her sister and her mother now living in California. She told me of her daughter
and son in law and hopes for a Spanish Language School. One year she was in Albuquerque at Thanksgiving with her precious grand daughter. She was so proud of her.

She gave me a poster of her picture “The Day Matters”. She mattered.

I’m so sorry I didn’t get to see her again before she died.

I’m sorry I won’t be able to attend the service.

Katie Crawford
Albuquerque, New Mexico