Karen

The theme for Mono Monday was "Best friends". Thanks DollyKGray :-)

In German a very good, reliable and a bit crazy person for the funny and not necessarily legal duties of life is called: somebody with whom you can steal horses :-) I couldn't find an English analogue.

Karen was my soulmate. 
I was a very happy one to meet her in a voluntary course in school, where we learned to make pottery. Although she was a bit younger, we spent a lot of time together. It was fabulous to hang around with her :-)
It is crazy, that I've almost no pictures, where we are together.
Left under the picture with the frame you can see us together in a pic, which was made during a photographic workshop in school...
We grow up, visited demonstrations agains nuclear power in Wackersdorf, enjoyed great festivals, started to work for Amnesty International and did the funniest and craziest things together.
The picture in the frame stands on my remembering table. 
We were in the English Garden in Munich and needed hours to built a pile of leaves for a photo session :-)  (The  bright trousers sticking in the leaves in the background it's me :-), the dark one is Karen :-D  )
It was fun!
1988 I left Munich to go to Göttingen for my education as a physiotherapist. Karen went to Landshut to learn ceramist.
We lost a bit our contact. I met J., settled down near Darmstadt after finishing my education, got merried (Left of the frame you see Karen with her partner Susanne at our wedding) and got kids (Karen missed the birth of M. for some hours...) and stucked in the unattractive life of a housewomen with a lot of little kids.
Karen got problems with her health, especially her shoulder (bad for potters) and travelled in a sort of peregrination through France and Spain. Her father suffered about cancer and died. 
Then I lost the contact. I never got an answer to my letters.
2000 I found Karens brother and asked him to help with a new connection with Karen. 
I 've gotten a very sad answer:
Karen suffered about a Bipolar disorder (I knew that) and was settled in a hospital for over a half year (I didn't knew).
In June 1998, still in hospital, she decided to commit suicide.
Unfortunatelly her body wasn't found for over two years.
Her brother sent me the vase you can see on my blip. It is handmade by Karen and one of my treasures by heart.
Karen, I miss you from here to the moon and back!