Friday, March 1, 2019
Dear Elizabeth, dear Stern family,
It’s a moment to reflect upon and to thank Gert, and the Stern family, for all they gave me. I met Gert as a stripling, more than thirty years ago, in my very first assignment at the World Bank, struggling to find my feet in the professional world with all its politics of power and games of personality. Gert was a source of wisdom, and the Stern family an anchor of goodness. From the first Christmas I spent with them to the cups of tea in later years. Befitting, Gert, that you had just peacefully sipped your last before you left.
We shared a love for plants and botany – though his knowledge and technique were on a different plane. We were both part of the same World Bank missions to Mauritius, in the 1980s, and when Gert saw me collecting wild grasses, he kindly looked up and gave me their Latin names and told me which plant species they belonged to. Later, when I acquired my first home and wanted to grow roses, he introduced me to the Consulting Rosarians, and look up formulae to control plant diseases. And his vegetable garden was enviably abundant.
Gert was also, to me, an icon of survival – given the darkness his family had encountered in his early years. And a symbol of family love and warmth. Gert and Elizabeth were devoted to each other, and to their children. I remember how eagerly he looked forward to his call home once a fortnight whilst travelling. And it was the same warmth that spread out to their many family friends, and I, and my husband Steve, were fortunate to be among them.
Anjali Kumar and Steve Neeck
