JUTTA

About the Book

I know, as she would tell me her philosophy at the kitchen table that it was her covenant with God to live as well as she could. She lived it with a capital “I,” even if it meant sprinkling your lawn in 15 minute increments because you couldn’t stay on your feet any longer. She never complained and she never acted like a martyr either. It was another adventure and change; one of millions of changes that she had been through in her life that would have stopped most of us cold. I know she was given a gift of seizing the situation and always coming out with positive thinking. She knew how to work her life around it. That inspired all of us. She taught me many things about this. She taught me how one can grow old without fear. How one can grow old with absolute joy.

Jutta’s daughter-in-law, Louise

About the Author

Hermann Peine was born to his war-widowed mother, Jutta Viktoria Peine, in Hildesheim, Germany towards the turbulent end of World War II. His chosen name was changed to that of his fallen father, who was killed by a snipers bullet on the Central Eastern Front six months before his only son was born. At seven years of age the author immigrate with his mother to the United States where they settled in the Rocky Mountains. He eventually received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah. After a long career in education and mental health, included a Fulbright Scholar award in conflict resolution to the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus in 2000-2001, he noted that the more therapy he practiced; the more he understood the uniqueness of his mother’s experiences and the strength of her personality. This work is based on the author’s personal observations, taped interviews of his mother, her personal writings, and recollection of the daily conversations they perfected. The story is one of beating the odds and is a testament to resiliency of the spirit and the development of profound coping strategies through numerous harrowing circumstances. It is a story encompassing the American dream and the blessings coming from hard work and determination.