A most special light has left us, a famous smile and blue clear eyes under wavy locks of silver hair. So very intent on making it to Advent and past her 100th birthday on St. Nicholas Eve.

However, mother’s tired heart finally gave up on Monday, September 14th as her children had to let her go just as we had to on March 15th, 1988 decades ago with father Werner at only age 56.

Anneliese Frederika nee Becher Haas 99 & 10 months, lived an often arduous life challenged by world events. Anneliese nurtured a deep faith in the genuine goodness of mankind in harmony with Mathew 25 and her love of spiritual, classical music and Lutheran Hymns.

Born on an Advent Sunday, December 5, 1926 in the WagnerStadt Bayreuth in the district of upper Franconia in Northern Bavaria, she was the 2nd oldest child to Frederich and Lina (Rausch) Becher, both very modest public servants and textile workers and above all ever devout Lutherans in Martin Luther’s direct descendant Evangelical church.

She was quickly assigned the task to take care of her younger siblings as their parents struggled to survive the post WWI depression and onset of fascism followed by WWII and the total

collapse of society. That left Anneliese with the indelible appreciation for what really matters. Mother Anneliese always impressed on all who would care to listen how precious those really important little things are.

To better appreciate her special nature, it is worthy to note the unique formational aspects of her geographical homeland. Anneliese grew up in the town of Hof, high in the upper Franconian Forest, thick with dark pines, nestled by the Thüringen Forest to the north where most of Germany’s glass blowing artisans lived making Christmas ornaments for the world. And nestled to the northeast in Saxony, the Erzgebirge ( Ore Mountains) where wood carving artisans produced most of the wood carvings and pyramids and simple straw stars. To the east the Oberpfälzer Wald that forms the border to Sudetenland and the Czech Republik. To the south her true heartland of the Fichtelgebirge ( Pine Mountains) ancestral home town of Wunsiedel where her beloved Becher & Rausch families can be traced back 3 centuries.

Impoverished teachers, weavers and artisans public servants but rich in appreciation of nature and God’s gifts to those who took the moment to take it in, Anneliese shared many of those moments with us all the past near 100 years. 4 river systems rise here and flow to all 4 Heavens.

The Saale to the north.

The Eger to the east and to the Elbe and North Sea.

The Naab to the south and on to the Danube and Black Sea.

The Main to the west and on the Rhein and Atlantic, Anneliese hiked all these forests as a school girl and had the joy of a life-giving quench from every one of these spring sources.

Therefore, she was ever so appreciative of our Wisconsin public parks and shorelines and sincerely hopes we can conserve and preserve what we have left for future generations. She had many walks in the woods and campgrounds just to breathe the aromatic air and listen to the wildlife and that of happy children.

Anneliese was protected as best possible from world affairs by her parents but the depression and fascism that took over Germany reached into her little home and family.

Her older brother was sent to the submarine corps. Her father redrafted again and sent to the Eastern front in Finland. The Nazi takeover by Hitler’s fascists at the tender age of only 6 and then age 12 when armed hostilities ensued in 1938. Again, it was Anneliese & her mother Lina that held the family together throughout the war. Against all odds her brother & father survived but her fiancé Erich Beyer, a 7-language linguist and paratrooper was killed in Italy. In school Anneliese excelled as a track & field athlete including high jump, broad jump, shot put and lugging heavy potato sacks from the fields during harvest thereby securing painful knee replacements for the future. (as Dr. Livermore would later attest to).

Anneliese felt called to the medical care field and studied to be a doctor’s assistant as an Evangelical Caritas nurse. She went to nursing school far away from home and at age 18 when the war ended and Germany entirely destroyed, her medical service just starting, she again was called to hold the family together. The family would, however, spread out in those 4 Heavens directions as did she. No men her age were left after the war but she was blessed to find Werner Haas, 5 years her junior. He was a trained tool & die craftsman with Siemens AG and received a skilled trades green card to immigrate to the United States in 1953. Anneliese followed her fiancé to Sheboygan in 1954 where they were sponsored by Herbert & Cora Senkbeil of Eclipse Mfg. and Trinity Lutheran Church. Anneliese & Werner were married at Pastor Schulz‘s home parsonage as they could not afford the church nor a ceremony.

A brief Sunday walk on Sheboygans South Beach would suffice as a honeymoon and Werner was back to work Monday morning. Shortly thereafter Werner was drafted as a non - citizen into the US Army and served in Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri. Then Fort Knox Kentucky where son Michael was born. But in those days the Army said “if we wanted you to have a wife, we would have issued you one.” As such, husband Werner was sent with the 3rd Armored Division back to Germany because he could “read the signs.” Mother Anneliese was left to fend for herself with a new baby in Elizabethtown, Kentucky in an upstairs back yard garage apartment with no running water and an outhouse out back with winter coming.

Anneliese left as soon as she could to go back home to her mother in Germany where she would wait out Werner’s army service tour. Following his discharge, they then resettled back to Sheboygan in 1958 where she gave birth to daughter Kathryn Ann.

First residences on Georgia Ave. and later on South 17th street, Wilson Avenue still unpaved, the end of civilization as we knew it. Anneliese made an angels effort to keep a home going for Werner and feed 2 children while trying to fit into a hard working class neighborhood.

How proud she was of her first home yet sad she could not share with her parents. No modern communication nor family available neighbors were important. Many drives on 17th street through the decades revealed many charming memories with the Vosses, Stoltenburgs, Valentincecs, the Meyers and the Hermanns, the Boedekers, Zingelst and Prinzens.

Both Michael and Kathryn had the privilege of attending their parents’ citizenship ceremonies and to enjoy their first koolaid and monster sugar cookies at the courthouse.

Anneliese devoted herself as a homemaker to the family with stints at Ross Glove Company and in the Sheboygan South High cafeteria. She taught herself to cook after some unhappy comments from her mother-in-law, excelling as a baker, sauerkraut and German potato salad maker.

Anneliese loved nature and to the very end could paint the most detailed miniature blooms without glasses. Beyond her considerable painting skills creating cards of inspiration and comfort but often with impish humor, her ceramic plates and sewing skills are legendary. Add gardening to that and you know why her back patio was such a magnet for honeybees, butterflies, bunnies, and birdies and all who wanted to hear her wise life's stories. She learned to love camping for father and passed that on to us as well.

Anneliese had a reverent devotion for the words of Martin Luther through Goethe to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Passionate for culture family traditions and music, she instilled a deep love of skilled performance by daughter Kathryn on her piano and son Michael on his violin. All the musical giants of Germany’s classical past over and frequented the vicinity of mother’s homeland. And as such they live on. Sheboygan and Indianapolis. Anneliese was the consummate culture vulture and shared that passion with anyone.

Mother relished performances of all kinds, front and back stage at the high schools and churches, the Weill center in Sheboygan and beyond, Bel Canto in Milwaukee and all the way to Chicago and back.

She loved her cats as much as her children and she was the inspiration for Educational TV on PBS and continuous learning radio with NPR and Wisconsin Public Radio. She was a dedicated contributor to NPR, WPR, PBS and would encourage you to do the same for future generations and for a better understanding as to how to avoid the mistakes of the past. Without mum Anneliese son Michael would not have been an Army officer or International Broadcaster and Journalist , nor played his violin for her on her final afternoon on earth as the sun set in her flower biotope filled with all things tender, gentle and fragile as she was.

Countless evenings Kathy would call from Indianapolis and serenade mum with an impromptu piano recital the kind of which saints and angels could let their guard down. After Werner’s career with Eclipse Manufacturing ended, he moved on to Van Horn RV, then to Waldo Tool & Die with Ernst Albsmeier of Sheboygan Stamping Co. He was then recruited as Production Manager for American Orthodontics by John Viglietti and Dan Merkel.

A tumultuous career change with plenty of insecurity, college bound kids and a mortgage, father Werner nervous, mother Anneliese a paragon of stoic providence, power and vision, Werner’s technical skills were beyond reproach and Anneliese’s baking skills & cultural charm did the rest.

Anneliese joined the American Orthodontics family. Father Werner had a good run with AO but sadly could not complete his commission contracting lymphoma at 49 and succumbing to it at age 56. Kathryn continued on to honor her father’s brief time with American Orthodontics and recently retired after 45 years in Sales. Anneliese cared for her younger love 6 long difficult years in the most intimate manner and in absence of the kids who were out of state and country.

Enter another life’s chapter.

Mum Anneliese fiercely taught herself how to function on her own. Bank and finances. House logistics and technology. Driving to and from Indianapolis with a cat under her feet through Chicago rush hour. Living on her own. Flying off to visit the kids on her own. Touring Germany with Kathy. Getting stopped with an axe in her luggage by Canadian customs on her way to Nova Scotia. Yellowstone and the Green River boat tours just short of winter onset while elks bugled. Impossibly wonderful experiences and always Homeland. This is where Anneliese felt “die Heimat.”

Especially with her steady stream of visitors and those she leaves behind: The teams of boys of Irishes & Virants where she is affectionately called Grammy Haas. Thank you, Bob and Mary,

Kelly and Jon, Josh and Melissa, Sarah and Ryan. Thank you Markwardts Chris and Mike. Thank you, Nate, and Bekka, Cam and Lynn. Thank you, Dave and Judy Tetschlag. Thank you Cheryl, Mark and Meghan Wurtz. Thank you Mary & Marlen Tanck.

Thank you, neighbors Louella and Victoria, John and Jane, Tony and Pam, Chandra and JoAngela and Hickory Circle neighbors Joe and Co., the Vang family and Marge and mother’s daily companions Kim, Erika and Robin and other sons and daughters. Thank Neil, Crete and Dom, Joerg and Christine, Jurica, Tamara and Haxi.

You all enriched mum’s life. With all of you, we were never alone.

Anneliese will appreciate you carrying her message forward. Go to a church concert, support the Arts, join NPR, PB and WPR, plant natives for pollinators as she loved petting the bumblebees.

Mother kept her vow to keep the family together as long as she could, yet lost her youngest sister Wilfriede in Wausau, WI. last year and next youngest sister Sieglinde just this last spring. She did her best to keep them going. Endless phone calls from the flower garden out back to encourage their life fight to stay with us. What an inspiration Anneliese was and still is.

Anneliese, you fulfilled Lina’s & Friderich’s wish. To keep them all together. Your niece's and nephews will honor their wish now for you. Pamela in Wausau, WI. Anne in Massachusetts. Jeffery in DC. Lothar & Petra in Hof, Bavaria.

Survivors Michael, Kathryn and Betsy must now honor your standard, your dearest wishes.

Anneliese would visit 5-6 church services, readings and concerts online every Sunday in multiple languages and confessions. Trinity Lutheran Church is home. She choose no services to be held. Interment was held September 28th at the Haas gravesite in Lutheran Cemetery and her close personal fans and mourners were there to bear witness and take her remarkable life’s credo with them.