Happy Christmas

Dear friends,

At the beginning of December, I start flipping through my cookbooks and plan a three-course meal for my friends. This year, I had to get some new recipes to put into preserving jars for delivery. 2020 was a year like we have seen none before and I sincerely hope 2021 is not already standing by saying, “Hold my drink, will you!”.

For me, the year was divided into two parts. The first half of the year was eerie with deserted streets right in the middle of the city centre, cleared out shelves in supermarkets and people who are unsure how to deal with the new situation.
But it is nice to see that life does find a way. I phoned my godson every evening and read him a story for half an hour. I have also obtained several VoIP numbers so that my friends abroad can also easily call me. Until then, I would have said that this was the most bizarre experience of my life, but the second act topped everything.

The second half of the year began on 3 June at 15:30 when I tried to ride my bicycle up the kerb, fell and injured my spinal column. At the scene of the accident, both arms and the right leg are paralysed. The latter is twitching uncontrollably though. An episode of Grey’s Anatomy follows: I saw ceilings of hospital corridors pass by, my clothes were cut and a dozen doctors examined me. The first night in the monitoring ward, I was able to stretch the little finger of my right hand. The other fingers were so powerless that not even the touch screen of my phone reacted. I could raise my right arm above my head, but could not lower it again: It would fall onto my face.
This was the beginning of a journey that unfortunately and hopefully is not yet over and which initially took me through three clinics for 2½ months. The intervertebral discs C4/5 and C5/6 were removed on 12 June in a five-hour operation. I take my first steps with a walking frame, walk with a rollator, learn to walk with crutches and finally freely. The butter at breakfast is too hard for my right hand at first and I can only hold the knife with a thickened grip. Even sitting in a wheelchair for half an hour exhausted me and I got cold sweats. In the meantime, my right hand is still a little slower than its sister, but I can type, grip and knead dough again and my general condition is also sufficient for all daily tasks.

As for travelling, the score is 2:2 for Corinna. In March, when she was still preparing, I caught some first rays of sunshine in Toulouse and Montpellier and clambered around castle walls in the medieval city of Carcassonne to recreate a 3D photo from around 1930. In September, when Corinna was taking a short breather, I was at the D.A.CH 3D meeting in Speicher. Fun fact: In Appenzell, my head touches the ceiling when I stand up straight. But above all it was proof that I can still travel on my own.
But Corinna also prepared for a counter-attack: Czechia had the lowest numbers in all of Europe. So, I dared to plan a weekend trip. Naturally, the day before my trip, Prague was declared a new high-risk area. We learnt our lesson and booked a weekend within the country with flexible cancellation and Olaf and I checked the numbers over our morning coffee on two official websites before leaving. Indeed, we spent a whole 20 hours in Bremen, because Corinna has a sense of humour, and we were baffled when in the evening the city was declared a new stronghold on national television.

What do you learn from this year? I have become more pragmatic: What is not there, cannot be done. So think of something else. The escaped paraplegia also left me somewhat philosophical and questioning: For a quarter of a year, I was completely torn out of my life, I did radically different things. I do not feel whether the things that were important to me before are still important to me now. What I can say very well is which people are dear to me. I have never had so many ice cream sundaes with kind people who visited me in rehabilitation. I was also deeply touched by the fact that so many of you sent me photos on Threema or called me to pass the time and be with me.
What do we want to keep in the New Year? Teaching online is not generally bad. It seems to me that a mixture is most effective. I bought a Wii U – the gaming console that lets you play sports. My Godson is 14 and he is becoming a young man. But I hope he still visits me often and we race each other on bobsleigh in the virtual ice canal. I am in the next round with a major international publisher and hope to write a new phonetics textbook. The first chapter is finished.

I look forward to being part of your life next year.

📧	mail@frank-lorenz.com
☎️	+49 341 2469993 ◈ 🇬🇧 056 0347 6320
📱	+49 163 7773243 ◈ 💬 Threema · Signal