More pictures in the Vienna Woods . These were taken on the long, hike we took on the day Dad died. As you walk up into the woods and through the vinyards you can see Vienna spread out below you.








These next pictures were taken when we stopped in a field to eat our snack. The hike was long, but we stopped for food and drinks of "sturm."

Just walk uphill from Maggie and Daniel's apartment and you are in the beautiful Vienna Woods, huge amount of land that partially encircles Vienna, where Beethoven wandered. In the fall the new wine, the "sturm" is done and you can hike through the woods to different vinyards and sample it.
Here are some lusciously ready grapes at one of the vinyards on our 6 hour hike.
Here we are, high above Vienna

Mourners' Kaddish
Translation by David Wolfe-Blank
The great essence will flower in our lives and expand throughout the world.
May we learn to let it shine through so we can augment its glory.
We praise, we continue to praise, and yet, whatever it is we praise, is quite beyond our grasp of all these words and symbols that point us towards it.
We know, and yet we do not know.
May great peace pour forth from the heavens for us, for all Israel, for all who struggle toward truth.
May that which makes harmony in the cosmos above, bring peace within and between us, and to all who dwell on this earth, and let us say, Ameyn.

Tuesday, September 30

Rosh Hashana
Today I was to go to the synogogue for services. But as I look at the maps, the lines of different colors showing the bus and the subway, I know I won't go. I don't have the motivation to explore Vienna, to walk out the door and figure out how to put myself along the journey pictured. Instead I will lie on the couch in Maggie and Daniel's beautiful apartment and think about my father who has always been there. To console me, to give advice, to make me mad, to make a joke or tell a story. From my earliest memory of his singing me a lullaby to strained telephone conversations about his condition.

Old Viennese

Rosh Hashana

greeting card

Second day in Vienna, Sunday September 28

Today, at 9:30 am, Joe Cassidy, my father died. He was at his home in Matawan, with Terri and health care workers. Anne was taking a shower in her hotel, getting ready to go over to 6 Indiancreek Road. When I got back from a long walk in the Vienna Woods with Maggie and Daniel, we saw we had gotten 3 phone calls and we knew. Well, Dad, there are a lot of us who feel sad and lost without you.

First day in Vienna--Saturday, September 27

Today, Maggie and I had coffee in the backyard of Maggie and Daniel's apartment. The apartment is hard to capture in pictures, but I will try. It is in an outer area of Vienna, just on the edge of the Vienna Woods. Here you see the pretty little yard with a hammock and a couple of small picnic tables scattered amongst the pots of flowers, trees and shrubs. We spent the morning and early afternoon waking up, drinking coffee in her back yard. There were still some tomatoes and peppers growing--it feels like the last of summer.

We went into the center of Vienna and saw some of the beautiful buildings of the Ringstrasse.
We ate lunch at a delicious middle eastern take out place in the train station.

We then negotiated the un-geometrical medieval streets in the old central part of Vienna to go to a traditional Viennese coffee house. A trio (bass, violin, piano) was playing classical music--well, it seemed like classical music, but one of the songs was a Big-Band standard arranged like a classical song. People were sitting around talking. There were little ashtrays on each table. Newspapers on sticks like in the library. Lots of dark colored wood. We were both pretty tired when we got there--don't think we had a super profound discussion, but I felt like this would be a good place to do so.

Then we came home where Daniel, who had just returned from his father's 50th birthday at their country home in southern Austria, made dinner. Delicious pizza, a beautiful salad, and wine. Didn't get a picture of the dinner, but here is the dining room table.

Drinking wine, we talked about the American elections, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin. It turns out that not every country is as obsessed with American politics as we are. But it seems that the same forces and fears about the future exist in Austria.

Tomorrow are the Austrian national elections. Because neither of them has enough seats in the Parliament to make a majority, one of the 2 most powerful parties will have to make a coalition either with one of the right wing groups or with the Green Party.

The two smaller right wing parties are extremely anti immigration. (Austria for Austrians) They have become popular by talking about how they can make everyone's lives better if they stop the drain on social services by immigrants and their large families. They promise to lower the price of gas, make people's lives better. They portray themselves as the champion of the common people and exploit their anger and fears about the future. A lot of people aren't that happy with the Green Party, but see it as a matter of votinfeel that they are forced to vote for the least of many evils.
Meanwhile, 16 year olds are being allowed to vote for the first time and are turning out to favor the right wing. How could they do that I thought to myself self righteously? But then I remembered that at 17 I wrote a long research paper on Karl Marx, my main source of information being J Edgar Hoover's book "Masters of Deceit". I was for Goldwater in 1964 and even had an AuH20 hair ribbon (AuH20 was printed over and over on the ribbon). I remember his acceptance speech which I loved: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

While we ate dinner, we listened to Simon Boccanegra live from the opera here in Vienna. It sounded really good. We hope to get tickets.

After dinner, everyone went to bed. It was now daytime in California and I was able to talk with Bill. Dad's condition is worsening. Anne is there. Max and Casey and Max's girlfriend too.

Sad news

As I was packing with some interference from Patches the cat and printing out my boarding pass, my brother, Bill called to say that our Dad's condition has worsened...that he has been diagnosed with "terminal agitation." They are giving him morphine every 2 hours and Haldol. Terri, our stepmother asked Bill to call all of us. He is dying, that is certain, but exactly when, no one knows. I cried, tried to figure out what to do.

The fact is that our family is incredibly spread out. There is an upside to this--we are passionate about what we do, we live interesting lives--I think in some ways our children are living out our fantasies in going to live and travel in wonderful places. Our parents were the same way. My father chose to leave Cleveland and go to the Naval Academy--the only one of the 6 children who went further than Columbus, Ohio. He was 18 years old, I think, when he and his mother arrived in Annapolis, Maryland with no money and no place to stay. They went to the local Catholic Church and introduced themselves. A nice family who lived next to St. Mary's Church put them up. Alan's parents left Chicago for California. Maybe it's in our genes to be dissatisfied, to want to explore. But now it seems so difficult.

I made the decision last April, after flying back to New Jersey several times in a few months--made the decision to go to Vienna and see Maggie in September and to go to Boston and help Rachel move into her new apartment in August. I knew if I did these 2 things I wouldn't have the time or money to go to New Jersey until October. But it had gotten harder and harder to be there. We couldn't stay at the house anymore and so the visits became more formal and more exhausting for all of us. And I felt that if I kept going so frequently to New Jersey I would not be able to see Rachel and Maggie at all.

Today I cried and tried to figure out what to do--I decided to continue to Vienna to see Maggie, that if bad news is going to come, we should be together. When my Dad dies, I hope I will be able to hold my 2 girls and Alan. But we don't know how it will all play out. How do I know what is best? I don't. But right now, I'm going to Vienna. As I sat on the subway at the airport, I realized that as the plane flies west, I will be going as fast as possible directly away from him. It has meant so much to me to have been able to physically care for him on my visits. Part of me longs to see him and touch him. As he lies in his bed struggling, my heart is with him, but this seems best. I think.

I'm leaving in a week

On Thursday, October 25 I am off to Vienna to see Maggie and Daniel and to spend the High Holy Days in the City of Dreams. I had planned to learn German, but I have only learned "Vo ist die toilette?".

I've been reading about the city of Vienna, especially the time in the 1800's when the liberals came into power and built important parts of the city. I'm looking forward to seeing the art and architecture from that time. I've also been reading about the end of the 1800's when the liberals ideals were coming into question. That time reminds me so much of our own time and I hope to understand it better.

I will be meeting Daniel's parents and grandparents who live in Carinthia in southern Austria. It sounds beautiful there. Here is a link to the website for Daniel's grandparents' farm: http://www.kanatschnig.at/

I've been reading as much as I can about the Jewish community in Vienna before and during the 1930's. There is a significant Jewish community in Vienna today. Maggie and I (and maybe Daniel) will go to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in Vienna's only liberal synagogue, Or Chadash. We will have Rosh Hashanah dinner and break the fast at Maggie and Daniel's apartment in the (I think?) 19th district.

Maggie and Daniel's apartment is very near the famous Vienna Woods, so I hope to go on some hikes. And of course, I really hope to see opera!!!!! And I can't wait to experience the famous coffeehouses of Vienna.