PHOTO: Pfänder mountain in western Austria, where I proposed marriage to my wonderful wife. ... I took this photo of the spot where I proposed a few minutes later. We could see Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany.
This early evening, I called my Austrian cousin Rita in western Austria from my wife's/my home in southeastern Florida slightly after 6 p.m., Eastern Time/U.S. Rita wasn't home, so I left a message on her answering machine in English and in German. I will try again tomorrow.
Long ago, my father created this tradition. In the early 1980s, my father and I took a trip to western Austria to visit many of our Austrian cousins, including Hans and his wife Rita. We spent New Year's Eve at Hans and Rita's house. When we returned home, my dad started a new tradition where Dad would call Hans on the phone from Dad's house on Long Island, New York, and later in Maryland, every Dec. 31 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time/U.S., which was 12 a.m./Midnight Austrian Time/Central European Time on Jan. 1. My father wanted to be one of the first people to wish Hans and Rita a Happy New Year.
After my dad passed away in February 1997, I continued the tradition from wherever I was living. Hans passed away in November 2013, so since then, I have been calling Rita directly.
Since the early 1980s, I have visited my Austrian cousins across Austria seven times and have gone skiing in the Austrian Alps with several of them on many of those trips.
On April 10, 2005, I proposed marriage to my future wife on a nearby snowy mountaintop with Hans and Rita just several yards from us. The four of us went for lunch and then returned to their home to celebrate with two more Austrian cousins (Blanka, Hans' sister, R.I.P.; and her son Markus).
My wife and I continue our trip by train to visit with more of my cousins in Salzburg and in Grinzing, near Vienna.
We wed in southeastern Florida on February 4, 2006, and we are still married.
December 31, 2025, at home
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