April 1, 2022 — Last Easter, Cardie Oma Hannlis wrote to the many cardies who have thoughtfully sent her Birthday and Feel Better cards over the years. Because so many of you said you loved her sweet bunny tale, we thought we’d share it again now as the time to get Easter cards in the mail draws near.

If ever there were someone who appreciates this beautiful life, it’s our Hannlis! Speaking to her by phone at her son’s, she sounds like she’s doing remarkably well, though watching too much news for her own good. “It brings back memories of growing up in Nazi Germany,” she explained. 😥 At 17, she began studying physical therapy at the Marburg University hospital and there treated soldiers who were either injured or had suffered severe frostbite fighting in Russia.

Yesterday, she put her 98-year-old self through Mohs surgery to remove some cancerous cells on her clavicle. I told her that — while she was taking care of the pesky sun damage — I would be drafting this to share with you, so she said to be sure to send her “Greetings!”

“Growing up on the coast of the North Sea in Germany,” Hannlis described, “Easter Sunday meant the beginning of spring and weekly bicycle tours for my family. My father had a map of the small off-roads meant only for hikers and bikers, from the ocean to the forest. On Easter Sunday, we would have a wonderful big breakfast with eggs we’d colored the day before as our table decoration. Then we would get on our bicycles and ride for more than an hour to a big meadow we loved.

It was a half-mile wide and miles long, surrounded on all sides by beech trees with their light, near-transparent green leaves. The grass grew a foot high and a creek ran through the middle, and there were wonderful wildflowers everywhere. Really outstanding!

“Once there, my parents would find us the perfect spot near the edge of the forest where the huge branches reached out and made it possible for my mother to be in the sun and my father in the shade.

“One most memorable Easter Sunday, when I was about 10 and my brother Otto nine, we were exploring the meadow and discovered, within a high rise of grass, a nest of three little bunnies. Their eyes were closed so they must have been born only the night before — they were too small to even move yet — and their parents had gone out for food. We were absolutely flabbergasted to find them, it’s so seldom that you see newborns tucked away in the wild. Because our father had taught us never to touch newborns in the wild because the parents would then reject them, Otto and I just sat quietly together a very long time observing them. We agreed to leave them alone so they could grow up to enjoy this beautiful meadow that our family so loved. We ran back to our own parents, gathered our bunches of wildflowers to take with us and rode back home.

“This memory is from 88 years ago, yet still so vivid in my heart and mind’s eye, just as my ‘baby bruder’ remains my very best friend. It’s as the card says: ‘Appreciate this beautiful life and all those who make it so!’”