Dear Ingrid, Paddy and Simone,
We are thinking of you all at this difficult time. It was such a privilege to have known Pete for over a quarter of a century during which our lives were entwined in so many peculiar and unexpected ways. On our first meeting on a sultry Hong Kong evening we discovered that Pete and Ingrid had lived several years previously in Buxey Lodge where my parents had also lived and where I was born! After our five-year stint in Hong Kong ended, we then somehow managed to end up just a few miles up the road from Sulzbach and were able to continue and strengthen our friendship. Pete was even there to help out when we moved into our first flat in Karlsruhe, supplying everyone with regular cups of coffee and doughnuts.
Over the years we greatly enjoyed his entertaining stories (he had quite a life!) and of course his humour, often simply expressed by raising a quizzical eyebrow. Since his accident we also got to know a different side, one of unwavering determination and optimism as well as a stubbornness never to give in to self-pity whatever hardships he faced. We will miss him greatly.
